In memoriam Leonard Retel Helmrich (1959 - 2023)
Filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich passed away this Saturday, 15 July. This was announced by his sister, filmmaker Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich.
Retel Helmrich was best known for his trilogy Eye of the Day, Shape of the Moon and Position among the Stars. The trilogy follows an Indonesian family in the slums of Jakarta for 12 years, using the Single Shot Cinema method Retel Helmrich developed. The trilogy was showered with nominations and awards at major international film festivals. At both IDFA and SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL, Eye of the Day and Position among the Stars won 'Best Documentary'. In 2018, he was knighted in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. Leonard Retel Helmrich lived to be 63.
Retel Helmrich was a member of the jury of the Academy Awards (Oscars). Teaching for years at prestigious universities such as Harvard (Radcliffe Institute) and New York University (NYU) in both New York and Abu Dhabi, he inspired young filmmakers around the world. The New York Times described him as 'the master of impossible camera angles'. Indeed, the Single Shot Cinema method he developed allows filmmakers to move freely through a space with a camera while recording long, continuous shots. To ensure the stability of these shots, Retel Helmrich developed devices such as the ‘Orbit’ and the ‘Steadywing’, which were marketed in both the US and European markets.
From left to right: Cinematographer Leonard Retel Helmrich, his sister, filmmaker Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich, and actor Robert Redford.
Retel Helmrich was born in 1959 in Tilburg, the Netherlands, and graduated from the Dutch Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam. In the early days, he often worked for film director/producer Pim de La Parra. When he was asked to direct the underwater scenes for De La Parra's film Odyssee d'Amour, he discovered the weightlessness of the camera. This later became the basis for his Single Shot Cinema method. Most of Leonard's films were produced by Scarabeefilms, the film production company he founded in 1989 together with his sister, filmmaker/producer Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich.
Early 2017, Leonard suffered sudden cardiac arrest in Lebanon while editing his documentary The Long Season. He survived the cardiac arrest, but was severely handicapped following a resuscitation in which his brain suffered extensive oxygen deprivation. His documentary The Long Season won 'Best Dutch Documentary' at IDFA that year, and was nominated for the Golden Calf at the Netherlands Film Festival the following year. Many of Leonard's other documentaries such as Raw Herring and Promised Paradise were similarly awarded many international Top Awards, invited at various international film festivals such as Tribeca, Sundance and IDFA, and could be viewed on various foreign television channels such as HBO.
Cinematographer Leonard Retel Helmrich