The importance of the Atelier as a meeting and working-place for independent or beginning filmmakers is highlighted in Last days of Studio Frans van de Staak a necrology of his films by Kees Hin (2002), which focuses mainly on Van de Staak's non-naturalistic style of directing actors.

De laatste dagen van het atelier Frans van de Staak

A sensitive, intimate and intriguing glimpse into the final days of the director's life companion. Rosemarie Blank follows her life companion very closely as, together, they make a film of his last days. In cinematographically fascinating scenes she manages to touch life in its most naked and pure form and delivers a tribute to a man who continued to fight for his life until the end, until his final decision to die of his own will.

Punt Uit Schluss Aus Full Stop

Stylised documentary portrait of the Amsterdam Levantkade area and the 'urban nomads' who in the late eighties sought refuge in this no-man's-land now cleared. The film tells the story of the Levantkade, a quay in Amsterdam's old doc area. In the twenties Levantkade was a gateway for Eastern European emigrants on their way to South America. In the eighties Levantkade became a haven for drop-outs, for foreigners and for homeless people who lived here on a different planet until the police came to clear the area for the wreckers. The film shows these 'urban indians' in documentary form, interspersed with archive material about immigrants, dating from 1926.

Transit Levantkade

A restless German woman lives with her dog in an old trailer close to the city of Amsterdam. Her life is an unstructured, nomadic existence. Wherever she is, there is always something missing and she always thinks that she could find it somewhere else.

Crossing Borders

Farewell Pavel

‘Where I am, I don’t want to stay. I want to stay where I’ve never been.’ Filmmaker Rosemarie Blank was born in Berlin, but has lived in various other places in the world. After returning to her native city, she wondered what it’s like for other people to live outside their motherland. In this diary, she interviews people whom she literally met in the street: her Kurdish newsvendor, who apart from his busy trade has a second job with the German railways, a Lebanese hairdresser, a Turkish furniture seller. They talk about melancholy, longing, the struggle for existence and against discrimination and they show how they lead their daily life. The encounters are larded with observing shots of multicultural Berlin, particularly where diversity is most visible: the subway.