“In my films I try to focus on the uniqueness of every person and the capacity to communicate with individuals expressing different values”
Experience
Early in my career I worked with and studied minorities in Europe, USA, Central and South America using my 35 mm camera and trying to capture life of these different cultures. Following this fieldwork, I joined the Amsterdam City Journal, a Film collective where I began my first effort to address social issues with the use of film. Topics included health care centers in Amsterdam and the process of growing older. In the U.S., I attended the University of Maryland Baltimore County, taking classes in Film Production.
I have been a professor of film at Stevenson University from 1999–2015
In the past I have taught film at Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Towson University, and Goucher College.
For the last 25 years, I have worked as Producer/Director/Director of Photography. Clients have included National Crime Prevention Council; The Johns Hopkins School For Hygiene and Public Health; Independent Television Service, St.Paul Minnesota, Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, and the Baltimore School for the Arts.
Education
- DRS. Sociology, University of Amsterdam
Professional Activities
- Professor of Film and Video, Stevenson University, 1999- 2015
- Director of Photography/Producer/Director 1988-present
From 2015 till now I have been producing with my former students PSAs Public Service Announcements for Social Organizations Like : International Rescue Committee, Refugee Youth Program, International Social Services, Asylee Women Enterprise, Asylee Housing Network, Adelante Latina, and Mera Kitchen Collective.
Since 2016 I am working with my former students on a screenplay for a feature film: called “Seeing” ,about a blind female writer who loves to make her own film
Exsul Van Helden 