ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

FRAMING THE OTHER is made by filmmakers Ilja Kok and Willem Timmers.

ILJA KOK works as a producer and a director at Copper Views. She is a true initiator and good at the organisation of and the logistics around a film production. She is also a lecturer in tourism studies and has worked as a tour guide in various countries in the past. The encounters that took place during these tours have triggered her to deepen her knowledge on relationships within tourism. The production of FRAMING THE OTHER contributed to her ambition of creating awareness about the interactions between tourism hosts and guests. Furthermore, by presenting the film as a teaching tool in classrooms, she combined her three passions of tourism, teaching and filmmaking. And when she is enjoying her spare time, you will no doubt find her in a skiff or sailing in her old flatbottom boat through de Biesbosch.

WILLEM TIMMERS works as a director, camera operator and editor at Copper Views. He is true visualizer. He creates stories with images and imagination, with a keen eye for details and design. He also works as an education designer, blending new media tools, pedagogics and design thinking principles through a co-creation method. He has also worked as a tour guide in Ethiopia in the past. He organized excursions for tour groups to amongst others, the Mursi people. The production of FRAMING THE OTHER has contributed to a better understanding of the complex relationships between tourists and ‘the Other’. As a result, subsequent film productions attach great value to the importance of respectful and fair representations of others. And when I am not on the set or behind a screen, he is bound to be traveling, visiting a festival or in the Thai kitchen.

Together they have set up Copper Views Film Productions, an audiovisual production company focussing on commissioned as well as independent documentary films and journalistic items. Read more on this page or visit the website.