Paulien Oltheten | Lourdes TV (film)

Lourdes TV (film), 2023

Length of film: 100 minutes

In collaboration with Albert Elings (editor), Peter Delpeut (creative advisor), Sergio Gonzalez Cuervo (sound designer) and Lotte van de Berg (dramaturg).

Financially supported by De Korte Verbeelding: a collaboration between Film Fonds and Mondriaan Fonds / Dommering Fonds / AFK / platform SoAP (Space oriented Artistic Practice).

The protagonist of the found footage film Lourdes TV watches daily for hours the webcam footage of the Cave of Apparitions. She follows with fascination the rigid routines of priests and nuns, how they prepare for Mass. She recognizes returning pilgrims as old acquaintances. The woman with her purple-pink backpack, waving at the webcam every day. Or the man with beret, trying to capture healing energy in various ways. She sympathizes with the desire of the visitors who want to touch the cave with their own hands. She watches live as the staff member lights the candles each morning. For a year, it marks her beginning of the day. It gives her a sense of power that she knows what will happen next. But why can't she separate herself from that, from these people who cling wholeheartedly to faith in the Virgin Mary's miraculous powers?

Is there a woman she herself can no longer reach? A love that has eluded her? Is this where she hopes to understand her girlfriend's mystic delusions?

Gradually, a personal story of love, letting go and loss unfolds. Pilgrims come and go: the comfort of strangers, 1300 kilometers away.

Lourdes TV - trailer version 1 (2022)

A man climbing over a pew in the night, causing a cracking sound.

Glitch. Is it my wifi, or is there something wrong in the Lourdes control room?

A man pruning so enthusiastically that the final shape looks unnaturally straight.

Also Lourdes webcam lenses need cleaning.

A Lourdes regular. In a moment she’ll turn around and start waving to the webcam. Does she know I’m watching?

A couple filling a water bottle in a theatrical pose. Sometimes it feels like I’m watching an opera.

This woman is here for a week now. Every day she walks back and forth for two hours. I remember seeing her last year doing the same.

Nuns in a grid.

Overexposed and therefore giving light. Contours gone. Spirit form, residual form.

This film is supported by: