Andrea van der Meer

I’m a filmmaker and artist. Only recently I got into video art. My short films are mainly poetic psychological drama since the complexity and mystery of the mind fascinate me. Thus psychological conditions perceived by the majority as abnormalities are explored in a poetic form.

I love to combine music (that I compose and perform for all my work) and poetry with the visual and allow this combination to create ‘Emotion’. I want to engage the viewer to the surreal dimension of metaphors and symbols - thus provoking an emotive response newly created or long forgotten and hidden away in the subconscious.

As I believe that we all have a different ‘Stream of consciousness’ that what it seems to be reality in fact is only an illusion, I am aware that we all perceive symbols and objects differently. Hence the reality I present in my work will be viewed and absorbed as fragmented perceptions from past or present experiences by others… Therefore creating a different meaning each time in each person’s consciousness.

For instance, if I present you a Lilium in one of my works… Yes, it is a flower and that’s a reality. But what does that Lilium represents to you? Its colour, its texture… Its smell… Does it remind you of a particular someone perhaps you hated or loved or a particular incident that occurred in the past involving Lilies etc… Whatever experience you might have had that has created an emotive response, either positive or negative, it will change the way you ‘see’ the Lilium. And not one person in the entire world perceives the same thing in the same identical way as another.

If only I could rewind and fast forward my life as if it were a videotape - like a car speeding towards the past, collecting all the dust left behind – of what it used to be, of what it could have been, of what it could never be…

… And when I speed towards the present, past and future melt into one – blending within a parallel dimension – while I’m stuck within a never-ending present…

If only I could break the chains of this flesh and bones and float around feeling light and free… What would I want to be? The branches of a tree? Or the oxygen within its lungs and leaves blown away by a soft wind up to the immensity of the sky? Where even Eternity comes to an end, immersed within a tiny moment of beauty and truth…

I would be a Lilium, pure and delicate, for everyone to smell and see and I would cleanse their lungs with a breath of Paradise…

And then I would come to an end… Silence would be heard… I would not live I would just exist transposed from one dimension to another… Waiting to live again and feel the soft sun on my skin and kiss the rain and the wind again and again in the never-ending cycle of life and death and re-birth… Where I have the chance to learn from my mistakes; and all those things that I should have done and said finally transmute their substance from regret to fulfilment…

Again and again I hear those words until they fade into a new stream of consciousness… ‘If only I could rewind and fast forward my life as if it were a videotape – like a car speeding towards the past collecting all the dust left behind – of what it used to be, of what it could have been, of what it could never be…

© 2008 Andrea van der Meer

I’d fill my eyes with the ocean if only you could swim within them… In my warmth and depth you’d be immersed to reach the core of my existence…

You know that you’re the only one who can go that far…

You know that you are the most precious part of me… that I adore and cherish and would follow across a thousand seas…

In the dark we’d fly

In the dark we’d see

What lies beyond the skies

For I am your wings

And you my flight

I’m your eyes

And you my sight

© 2008 Andrea van der Meer

Tilde’s Labyrinth is everyone’s labyrinth. It’s where we lose ourselves in search for ourselves - in search for that sparkle of light to shine on our lives and existence.

How many times have we searched for an answer, for a reason, for a clue to solve the puzzle of the mysteriousness in which our life is plunged in? How many times have we searched for it in complicated mathematical theories or philosophy or science or religion?

And how many times have we actually taken the time to search for it in the simplest things? In those simple things that surround us each and every day that we take for granted, and we never appreciate their enormous significance?

Tilde’s Labyrinth is the journey of a young beautiful woman in search for herself, for an answer… for a reason. But what is it that she’s searching for within herself, within that answer, within that reason?

"… I hope you’ll find what you're searching for, I hope I’ll find what I’m searching for but what, what is it? If only I knew!" –

TILDE’S LABYRINTH COMING SOON

© 2008 Andrea van der Meer

Marta Barrio is a beautiful and talented Spanish actress. She has kindly accepted to work with me in the making of this film even if I use a small digital camera! J And undoubtedly I feel immensely honoured.

Her gracious approach to life and pathos within bring both beauty and elegance to her work and I’m sure that everyone who has worked with her or just simply met her, has felt this warming, glowing beauty coming out of her…

That is a natural talent that will take her far in her career and I hope of course to be working with her also in future projects.

TILDE'S LABYRINTH

ACT TWO

SCENE A

Int. Tilde talks to herself in retrospect. She is melancholic and tender.

TILDE

I love the rain... When it rains all becomes real, alive. I love things that live despite death, things that sparkle and shine despite darkness. I love people who smile despite their suffering; people who can climb a mountain in seconds and still feel humble enough to even save the life of the smallest creature...

I miss the sea. I grew up by one. And it was the bluest, the clearest… the deepest. Water has always been a source of strength for me; transformation, movement, vitality – the only way to wash old energy away and attract new energy through the healing powers of water which is the main ingredient in the ‘ soup’ of minerals that made life possible on this planet! Yes… Yes… Water…

Rain, rain, rain… it washes away all my fears and tears… The perfect day for me is when I’m at the beach, by the shore and suddenly it starts to rain… Every time I find it hard to contain my joy.

Funny how the simplest things in life can give you the greatest pleasures of all. When I was young I used to run away from home and go to the beach when it was getting late; it was only five minutes away… The sky and the sea almost seemed as one – as though as they were blending together.

Their essence mingling together like colours on canvas… the horizon was fading as if there were no borders between the sky and the sea… blending with the infinite. I used to raise my hand right in between the sky and the sea and so my hand was part of them. Absorbing the same dark blue-purples, pale whites and dark reds… So I was too blending with the infinite… as though as I was the sky and the sea… as if they were part of me…

I love listening to you… I love these monologues of yours, so tender and deep… Your words are soft like feathers caressing me. I love to listen to your heart pounding when you get excited and the thrill rushes into and throbs in your temples…

…Who are you? Where do you come from? How did you get inside my house? What do you want from me? Are you here to kill me?

Why do you think that I am here to kill you?

Because you are the most frightening thing that I have ever seen!