Mens En Mijn + Bronsgroen En Anders Zwart
Special screening of two documentaries in which the mining history of the province of Limburg plays a central role. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the closure of the mines.
The propaganda film MENS AND MIJN was commissioned by the Dutch Catholic Mineworkers Union a few years before the announcement of the mine closures. The film portrays the work and social life of miners and how their interests are represented by the union. The underground footage was shot at the Domaniale Mine in Kerkrade.
The documentary BRONSGROEN EN ANDERS ZWART (Jan Besselink & Frank Holthuizen, Netherlands 2006, 50 min.) is partly based on the brilliant colour films of Heerlen photographer/cinematographer Hub. Leufkens from the years 1938-1948. His footage shows Limburg as a pastoral landscape populated by simple folk. Leufkens’ films are contrasted with other images of Limburg, focusing both on mining and the beauty of the province. Poet Wiel Kusters, as narrator, makes this Limburg, with its familiar as well as its exotic sides, comprehensible to the contemporary viewer.