From 26 August through 5 September, seven Dutch authors will take part in a ten-day festival in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, organized by the Dutch Foundation for Literature and EYE International, with the theme of Dutch literature and film.
The authors are Arjen Duinker, Arnon Grunberg, Toine Heijmans, Marjolijn Hof, Janny van der Molen, Barbara Stok, Tommy Wieringa, and they are joined by actor Ton Meijer with a theatrical performance based on Sieb Posthuma’s picture book Calder and by film directors Rudolf van den Berg, Lotte Tabbers and Reinout Oerlemans.
They will present their recently published work to the Brazilian public and engage in discussions with renowned Brazilian authors including Daniel Galera and Michel Laub. The evenings will be framed by music. The children’s book authors will hold workshops for Brazilian schoolchildren, both in schools and in libraries.
Biblioteca Parque in Rio de Janeiro will host the exhibition Isso aqui, ôô, é um pouquinho da Holanda, with work by twenty Dutch children’s book illustrators. It will be opened on Tuesday 1 September by Marjan Hammersma, director-general of Culture and Media at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, and run until the end of September.
The programme of films, again in Biblioteca Parque, includes film versions of Tirza and Een kleine kans (Patatje Oorlog). Director Rudolf van den Berg and screenplay writer Lotte Tabbers will introduce each film, along with the authors of the books in question. The film programme has been organized in close collaboration with Eye Film International.
In late June, at the invitation of the Dutch Foundation for Literature, three journalists from the most important Brazilian media visited Amsterdam. Since then several articles about Café Amsterdã have appeared in Brazilian newspapers, along with interviews with authors including Toine Heijmans and Janny van der Molen.