Eliane Esther Bots (1986) is a Dutch filmmaker / visual artist who is currently based in The Hague. She mostly works within the realm of documentary film, sometimes expanding this into installation, performance, audio works and publications. Her practice explores the idea of ‘the narrating self’, and the changes in narrative position and story when people experience a disruptive, life changing event or conflict.
Eliane Bots graduated with a Bachelor from the University of the Arts Utrecht, The Netherlands, she participated in the post graduate program 'Document & Contemporary art', European school of visual art in France and graduated with the Master of Film at The Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam (NL).
Eliane’s films have been screened at festivals such as IDFA Amsterdam (NL), Locarno Film Festival (IT), Berlinale (DE), Cinema du Reel, Paris (FR), DOC NYC (USA), International short film festival Oberhausen (DE), Go Short, Nijmegen (NL), Glasgow Short Film Festival (UK), Kassel Dokfest (DE), Videonale (DE), Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin (FR/DE). Her work has also been exhibited in places such as Kunstmuseum Bonn (DE), Stroom (NL), POLIN Museum Warsaw (PL) and published in Metropolis M and The New Yorker.
Her film ‘In Flow of Words’ won several awards, among which the Pardi di Domani Best Director - BONALUMI Engineering award at the Locarno Film Festival, VIDEONALE19, Fluentum Collection Award and a Gouden Kalf for best short documentary at the Netherlands Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the European Film Awards.
She worked over a decade as an educator in Moving Image at the University of the Arts in Utrecht, The Netherlands (NL) and has extensive teaching experience at institutions such as ArtEZ Zwolle. Her current position is that of ‘Core Teacher’ at the Master of Film at The Netherlands Film Academy. Additionally, Eliane Bots has been a programmer for the Go Short Film Festival, developed the concept for the IDFA 2023 festival campaign, was a mentor at the coaching program ‘Stroom Talent award’, The Hague (2023) and was a Jury member for short documentary at IDFA 2021.
Some additional reading
>> Article in The New Yorker about 'In Flow of Words' (2022)
>> Article in Metropolis M about 'In Flow of Words' (2022)
>> A few minutes on Austrian radio FM4 (from 13:15)
>> Interview at Go Short 2022 about 'In Flow of Words'
>> A short interview for the 'Clermont Ferrand International Short Film festival'
>> An interview with 'Fade to her' about 'In Flow of Words'
>> An extensive review of 'In Flow of Words' by Kinoscope
>> A short interview with SEE NL about 'In Flow of Words'
>> A curatorial text about 'Cloud Forest' for Instituto Cervantes Utrecht
>> An interview about 'Cloud Forest' for 'We are moving stories'
>> Podcast 'Kunst is Lang' with Luuk Heezen
>> Some words about 'Cloud Forest'
>> Short interview about The Brick House for Cinema du Reel Festival (Centre Pompidou, Paris, France)
>> Article in 'Samizdat' by Alexandra Nicolau about The Brick House
>> 'A Broken Continuity of Memory and Objects', article by Ewa Klekot about Conversations (p.52)