Dee Sitonu a Weti (Stones Have Laws)
by Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan, Tolin Alexander Suriname
Netherlands, 2018
synopsis
Dee Sitonu a Weti (Stones Have Laws) is an immersive initiation into the life of a Maroon community in the former Dutch colony of Suriname. Combining stories of African ancestral traditions and escaped slavery with enacted contemporary rituals, the film explores how the community’s powerful ties to the land have become endangered as industries threaten to devastate the region through deforestation and mining.
about the directors
Lonnie van Brummelen (1969) & Siebren de Haan (1966) work together as collaborating artists since 2002, producing film installations, sculptures, publications and image collages that explore cultural and geopolitical landscapes such as Europe’s borders, sites of resource production and global trade, and the (non) sites of cultural heritage. Most of their projects involve intensive fieldwork and collaboration. Episode of the Sea (2014) was their first crossover to cinema. The film was made in collaboration with the fishing community of Urk.
In 2015, the artists initiated Stones Have Laws: a film project in collaboration with the Surinamese Maroon community, which was four years in the making. Van Brummelen and De Haan were part of the research team and did the camera work, sound recording and editing. They co-directed the film with the Surinamese theatermaker Tolin Alexander. Stones Have Laws received theatrical release in the Netherlands and the UK.
Venues where their artworks have been shown include Talbot Rice Gallery Edinburgh (2019); Fotofestival Noorderlicht (2019); Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2017); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2015); Concordia Gallery, Montreal (2015); HartWare, Dortmund (2014).
Works of the artists are in the public collection of Kunsthaus Zürich; Les Abattoirs, Toulouse; MUDAM Luxembourg; FRAC Marseille; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf; Hoffmann Sammlung, Berlin; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Their films screened a.o. at ICA’s Frames of Representation (2019); MUBI (2018), IDFA (2014/2018); TIFF (2014/2012); MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight (2014); RIDM (2014); Mar del Plata Film Festival (2014); CPH:DOX Copenhagen (2014); Berlinale (2012); Robert Flaherty Seminar (2008).
Van Brummelen and De Haan live and work in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Tolin Alexander (1971) is a writer, theatre director, actor and dancer of Surinamese Maroon descent. He specializes in cross-cultural theatre and community projects and regularly trains young people in theatre skills to improve their self-confidence. In 1994 he co-founded the cultural dance group Fiamba with Louise Wondel (1971-2014) which aimed to integrate Maroon culture into Surinamese society. In 2003, he founded the Forum Tolin Toli Masanga company and developed and produced various creative theater plays and performances with this company.
In 2007, he was one of the three participants of the “Theater on the move” project of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tolin co-initiated the Culture Caravan that travelled to Ecuadorian and Colombian villages plagued by violent groups. Most recently he collaborated with the crew of the Dutch-flagged Ship of Fools to present a new play in Paramaribo.
He regularly collaborates with Kibii Foundation Moengo.
