Facing Animals will be part of Vancouver International Film Festival, Canada.
Section: Nonfiction Features of 2012
Screening dates:
Sep 29 02:00 pm
Oct 08 03:15 pm
Oct 10 06:15 pm
Category: Facing Animals
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Facing Animals selected for Nederlands Film Festival
Facing Animals will have its Dutch Première at the Nederlands Film Festival. The film has been selected for the Debut competition and the ‘Gouden Kalveren’ competition.
Screening dates:
29 September 2012, ‘t Hoogt, Utrecht (Première)
3 October 2012, Wolff City, Utrecht
4 October 2012, Louis Hartlooper Complex, Utrecht
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Screening at Split Film Festival, Croatia
Facing Animals has been selected for Split Film Festival, Croatia 15-22nd September 2012.
The film will be part of the short film competition.
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Filmscreening at Minding Animals conference 2012
Facing Animals will be screened at the International Minding Animals Conference in Utrecht, The Netherlands on 6th of July 2012.
This conference is the second in a series of conferences about scientific, ethical and social issues related to human interactions with and uses of animals.
The aim of the conference is to bring together academics from different areas (animal welfare, animal ethics, and animal studies in general) with politicians and a broad variety of interest groups.
The conference offers a platform for exchange of information about research developments, debates about controversial political and ethical issues concerning the treatment of animals and a variety of cultural activities around animals.
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Film Finished!
The editing, color correction and audio-mix of Facing Animals has been finished!
The first part of the edit was done by editor Rienk Leendertse and in the final part of the process I had fantastic help from Metje Postma, anthropological filmmaker. They are both living in Leiden, The Netherlands.
The audio-mix was done by Huibert Boon in Amsterdam.
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International distribution for Facing Animals
Deckert Distribution GmbH, based in Germany will do the world sales of the film.
About Deckert Distribution:
Deckert Distribution is a world sales company for documentaries and stands for excellent, director-led, award-winning films.
We distribute creative documentaries from around the globe for which we see a potential on the international market. The films in our catalogue are very divers in style and content, but they all have one thing in common: we are convinced of their high quality and their high relevance, and we want to introduce these outstanding documentaries to a wide international audience. So our main goal is to make the connection between a film and its viewers, via TV as well as within the festival circuit.
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STORE
Click on the filmposter to rent or buy my films:
Planktonium Photobook EN/DE:
ENGLISH EDITION – INTERNATIONAL ORDERS 
GERMAN EDITION PHOTO BOOKS AND FINE ART PRINTS
Collectors Box Planktonium (SOLD OUT)
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Facing Animals winner ‘Project of the Month’ on Reelisor.com
Facing Animals has been chosen as ‘Project of the Month’ on Reelisor.com, an online cooperation platform for the professional European documentary world.
Charlie Philips, jury member and Marketplace Director of Sheffield Doc/fest:
We’re delighted to announce the winner of the first ever Project of The Month on reelisor. The winner is Jan Van Ijken with “Facing Animals” – you can see the project here
It’s a fascinating project with a special pitch video. An investigation into how animals see the world, it’s understated and takes the unusual tactic of literally giving us an animal’s eye view – a bit like Nicolas Philibert’s Nenette did, and this doc looks like it’ll share the non-human intensity of that one, but in Facing Animals, the tables are turned. We’re not observing the non-human animals, we are them! We’re in the chicken coop, we’re in the farmyard, we’re looking at humanity.
It’s not simply looking like a great project because of this device, it’s also the mundanity of the scenes that we’ll get – the row of indifferent men watching, to mirror the general indifference/attitude of functionality to anything not human. in the small amount of info Jan is able to give us in his reelisor project area, you get an excellent sense of the reason this doc needs to exist and of the (enjoyably ambiguous) stance of the filmmaker.
So well done Jan! Jan was picked from a shortlist of 10 entries, whittled down from 51 new projects added on reelisor in August and half of September (so really it was 6 weeks this time, not a month). The standard was very high.
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Facing Animals
Facing Animals (debut film of Jan van IJken) is a documentary film about the complex and often bizarre relationship between man and animal.
Why do we look away from millions of animals in industrial farms while pampering and humanizing others? In the film Facing Animals pigs, chickens, cows and dogs are the protagonists, humans are the antagonist.
We see the world from the perspective of the animals: chicks are thrown onto a conveyor belt, a lady is cuddling a cow in a meadow, piglets are screaming while their tails are cut off, dogs are blessed in a church.
The stunning, often confronting, visuals take the viewer on a roller coaster of emotions. It becomes clear how complex and often bizarre the relationship between man and animal is.
2012, HD Video, color, 29:31
Facing Animals was screened at more than 15 international film festivals and received the Grand Prix for short films at Split Film Festival, Croatia.
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ABOUT
Jan van IJken is a filmmaker and photographer in Leiden, the Netherlands, working on the interface of art and science. In his latest works, he reveals secrets in nature like the murmurations of starlings, the genesis of life and the unseen world of microscopic plankton. He is interested in microscopy, nature, biology, evolution, and embryology. His award-winning work has been published in numerous international media, e.g. National Geographic and BBC Planet Earth III.
In earlier years he published three photobooks on social-documentary subjects like devotion in Eastern Europe and the relationship of man and animal. He developed a keen eye for light and composition and specializes on autonomous long-term projects.
Projects
Becoming Bird (2026, 4K, color, 09:20)
Becoming Bird is a short film about the miraculous embryonic development of a chicken inside its egg, from fertilized egg cell to hatching. In the film, we observe the developing embryo in remarkable detail: the appearance of veins carrying streaming blood and a beating heart, the development of the brain, eyes and other organs, the embryo’s first movements, the emergence of feathers, and finally the hatching of the chick. It is an emotional journey, filmed by Jan van IJken with extraordinary precision and detail.
Planktonium – short film (2021, 4K Video, color, 15:23) and photobook
Planktonium is a short film and photobook about the unseen world of living microscopic plankton. The film includes a sound composition by Jana Winderen. It is a voyage into a secret universe, inhabited by alien-like creatures
Planktonium had its world premiere at Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival, CZ and was screened at many international film festivals and art galleries.
The Dutch Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden acquired one copy of the short film Planktonium for its collection and the film has been part of Leiden European City of Science 2022 program.
The film received the J. B. CZECZ AWARD FOR BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY at Włodzimierz Puchalski International Nature Film Festival, Łódź, PL 2022
A short sequence of plankton footage was featured in Planet Earth III, Ocean Episode, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5mkz46vC74JXyMq4F1rMsP7/plankton-an-unseen-universeIn 2024, I was invited to take part in an epic journey to film plankton at the North Pole onboard of the luxury icebreaker Le Commandant Charcot for National Geographic’s Pole to Pole series with Will Smith and Allison Fong.
https://www.natgeotv.com/nl/programmas/natgeo/pole-to-pole-with-will-smith
Planktonium Live Performances
In these live performances, I am screening plankton videos, improvising with musicians and sound artists.
2025 Inscience Film Festival, Nijmegen, NL (2 performances, with John van Oostrum)
2025 Mu Hybrid Art House, Eindhoven, NL (with John van Oostrum)
2024 IDFA on Stage, Eye Filmmuseum Cinema 1 (with Jana Winderen)
2024 Kunstroute, Auditorium Museum De Lakenhal (with John van Oostrum)
2024 Glastonbury Festival, Tree Stage, UK (with Steve Everitt / Entity)
2024 International Film Festival Rotterdam, Art Directions program, Worm, NL (with Vitja Pauwels)
2023 ‘O’ / Videodroom for Viernulvier & Film Fest Gent, De Vooruit, Gent, BE
(with musicians Naima Joris, Niels van Heertum and Vitja Pauwels)Photobook Planktonium
English edition by Terra Publishers
German edition by Tecklenborg Verlag
Six photos were nominated for a Wildscreen Panda Award 2022, category Photo Story, and in the Nikon Small World competition two photos were awarded 9th place / honourable mention, plus one honourable mention for a videoclip from Planktonium.
The photo series was published in National Geographic Magazine NL, New Scientist, Oceanographic Magazine, NRC Handelsblad, Algemeen Dagblad, Süddeutsche Zeitung among many others.Radio and TV interviews by Vroege Vogels and M in the Netherlands
Becoming – short film (2018, HD Video, color, 06:15)
BECOMING is a short film about the miraculous genesis of animal life. In great microscopic detail, we see the ‘making of’ a salamander in its transparent egg from fertilization to hatching.
Becoming has been screened at more than 25 international film festivals and received the Award for best short documentary at the Innsbruck nature film festival 2018, the Visual Science Award at Imagine Science Abu Dhabi 2019 and a honorary mention at Academia Film, Olomouc, CZ. The film was awarded Vimeo Staff Pick of the Month and was nominated for Vimeo Best of 2019 (top 10 experimental films).
In 2019 the film went ‘viral’ on internet and has been watched by millions of people. It was published on the website of National Geographic, Aeon, Colossal, Live Science, IFLScience and numerous others. The Dutch TV show De Wereld Draait Door screened the film, including an interview.
The art of flying – short film (2015, HD Video, black&white, 06:52) and photo series
Short film about “murmurations”: the mysterious flights of the Common Starling
The film has been screened at more than 50 international film festivals, galleries, biennales, etc. and was awarded ‘Best art film’ at Pärnu Film Festival, Estonia, selected for National Geographic Short Film showcase and awarded a Vimeo Staff Pick.
Nevermore – short film (2013 HD Video, color, 03:37)
Film about the fast and almost instinctive creative process of action painting by dribbling, splashing, scratching and smearing paint on a huge canvas. The work is based on the poem ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe: an almost abstract chaos of words and sounds.
Jan van IJken filmed Dutch artist Theo Zwinderman painting ‘The Raven’ and edited the film on the rhythm of a reading of the poem by George Snow.
Facing Animals – short film (2012, HD Video, color, 29:31)
Facing Animals (debut film of Jan van IJken) is a documentary film about the complex and often bizarre relationship between man and animal.
Why do we look away from millions of animals in industrial farms while pampering and humanizing others? In the film Facing Animals pigs, chickens, cows and dogs are the protagonists, humans are the antagonist.
Grand prix short films at Split Film festival, Croatia and screenings at international film festivals.
Dierbaar (Precious animals) – photobook (2005) about the relationship between man and animal
Precious Animals (2005) is a photo-project about the relationship between animals and humans, focusing on animals as manufactured consumer products on the one hand, with efficiency playing the leading role, and these very consumers and their habit of pampering their own pets and other cuddly two and four-legged creatures, on the other hand.
Precious Animals was commissioned by the Rijksmuseum and NRC Handelsblad as part of their series ‘Document Nederland’. The photos were exhibited in photo museum Huis Marseille, Amsterdam from Nov 2005 – Feb 2006, along with a special supplement of NRC Handelsblad and the publication of the photobook Dierbaar.
The series was published in many international newspapers and magazines (e.g. De Morgen, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, El Mundo Magazine, Eight, Mother Jones Magazine and Days Japan) and received a Humanity Photo Award, an International Photography Award and was selected for American Photography. The series was screened at photo festival Visa pour l’image, Perpignan, France
Awards: Humanity Photo Award, China, 3rd prize Daily Life 2006, International Photography Awards, 3rd prize Photo Essays 2006, Black and White Spider Awards, Nomination Fine Arts 2007
Collections: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, John Cleary Gallery Houston USA, Museum of Fine Arts Houston USA
Radio interviews (Dutch only): Vroege Vogels, 2 hour special / interview 2005 and Kunststof Radio, 1 hour interview 2005:
Interview Kunststof radio (in Dutch) 15 November 2005 New Neighbours – photobook (2004) about the enlargement of the E.U.
Photo-project about daily life in five Eastern European and five Dutch municipalities. Van IJken has used the twinning of these municipalities as a starting point from which to compare everyday life in Eastern and Western Europe. People are the focus of this series of photos. The individuals who inhabit these images have been captured in all kinds of everyday situations.
The series was published in the photobook ‘New Neighbours’ (2004) and was exhibited in the Atrium, The Hague, The Netherlands
A touch of Divinity – photobook (2001) about religion in Eastern Europe
From 1997 to 2000 Jan van IJken worked on a photo project about religiosity in Eastern Europe. Travelling through Poland, the Ukraine, Slovakia and Rumania, he was present at pilgrimages, religious festivals, liturgies and processions.
The photos were published in the photobook ‘A touch of Divinity’ (2001) and were exhibited in a travelling exhibition in monumental churches in the Netherlands.
The publication of the book was followed by travelling exhibition in monumental churches in the Netherlands. The project received a Humanity Photo Award, China, 2nd prize Daily Life in 2002
