Good Will to Men

Story

A Christmas wish in the form of a puppet animation film from Joop Geesink's Dollywood studios.

A Christmas choir sings the most beautiful melodies, the lights twinkle in the Christmas tree and on the street, people drink mulled wine in a stall in the snow. The film ends with ‘Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year from the management of this theatre’.

Enthusiastic reactions

The client was ‘the management of this theatre’, in all likelihood the cinemas that were members of the Dutch Cinema & Film Federation, the NFB. Employees and board members of cinemas will have taken note of the often enthusiastic reactions elicited from audiences on seeing one of Joop Geesink's puppet films. It is possible that this good-will reaction supported the public's desire to have a puppet film of their own.

In what way this film order was acquired by Joop Geesink is not clear. Joop Geesink was, as it is now called, a ‘networker’. He had contacts everywhere and kept friends with everyone he thought he could earn money from. Joop Geesink had joined the trade association ‘Nederlandse Film- en Bioscoopbond’ (NFB) since 1953. He was a well-known filmmaker and member theatres showed his films. There must have been some connection between his membership and this commission.

Storyboard

The concept of the film will probably have been presented and sold to the client by Joop Geesink himself. The visualisation was entirely in the hands of versatile illustrator Henk Kabos. He worked out the entire story on two sheets of paper as a storyboard. This storyboard has fortunately been preserved as have some black-and-white photos from the production. More photos are elsewhere on the site.

However you look at this film, it is an atmospheric poetic film poem. There is actually no story being told and peculiarly, there is no commercial at the end of this production. In that respect, this film can be seen as a free film, with a sponsored budget.

Trivia

The film was timeless for the 1950s and could be used multiple Christmas celebrations without any problems. The production of this film is from 1956. A family magazine (family magazine ‘Catholic Illustrated’) published a comprehensive article on Dollywood in 1959, in which colour photos of this production even graced the cover. This shows how popular and timeless such films were.

Henk Kabos

Director Henk Kabos kept many of his designs in a scrapbook. In this case, he also added photos taken by the studio photographer of each set. The photos and film are currently part of the EYE film archive.