Paulien Oltheten | Lourdes TV (film)

Lourdes TV (film), 2024

Length of film: 95 minutes

Made in collaboration with Albert Elings (editor), Peter Delpeut (creative advisor), Sergio Gonzàlez Cuervo (sound designer) and Lotte van den Berg (dramaturg) and platform SoAP (Space oriented Artistic Practice)

Financially supported by De Korte Verbeelding (a collaboration between the Netherlands Film Fund and the Mondriaan Fund) / Dommering Foundation / Amsterdam Fund for the Arts / platform SoAP.

“It all started with you lighting a candle. You told me to not disturb you. You were going to do something.The following night you did it again. Well, it started happening more often. With more and more candles. And the hours increased.

For hours every day, the protagonist of the desktop film Lourdes TV watches the live stream from the webcam at the Grotto of Apparitions. Fascinated, she follows the rigid routines of the priests and nuns as they make their preparations for Mass. She recognizes returning pilgrims as if they were old acquaintances: the woman with the purple-pink backpack who waves at the webcam every day, or the man with the beret who tries to receive healing energy in various ways. For a year, watching an assistant light the candles each morning marks the beginning of her day.

Why can't she detach herself from these people who cling wholeheartedly to their faith in the miraculous powers of the Virgin Mary?

As we watch the webcam together with the protagonist and see visitors who find something to hold onto when they can touch the walls of Mary’s grotto with their own hands, a personal story of love, letting go and loss quietly unfolds, The pilgrims come and go; the solace of strangers 1300 kilometres away.

I remember one evening...it had been silent for a while. I went in to check on you. And you had fallen asleep, and I blew out the candles which woke you up. You got so angry. As if I had ruined something. You said it, too...that I’d ruined something.