Huub Bals
| Huub Bals | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 3, 1937 Utrecht, The Netherlands |
| Died | July 13, 1988 (aged 51) Utrecht, The Netherlands |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Occupation | first director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (1972-1988), organizer of the Cinemanifestatie in Utrecht (1966-1972) |
| Known for | film programming, cinephilia, personality |
Hubertus Bernardus “Huub” Bals (February 3, 1937 – July 13, 1988) was the first director and creator of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), formerly named Film International. The IFFR started small in the Calypso cinema and film theatre 't Venster (now Lantaren/Venster) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 1972, with only 4500 visitors and 31 films. In the forthcoming years the film festival expanded gradually under the watchful cinephile eye of Bals to 150.000 visitors and multiple cinemas in 1988 - Bals' last festival - and developed into an annual film event of great international importance, with already more than 350.000 visitors in 2010. Thanks to Bals many new film countries and continents have been introduced to The Netherlands, among which Russia, China, Taiwan, Africa and Latin-America.
'The masters of the cinema of tomorrow are from the Third World.'
Huub Bals was born to Hubertus Bernardus Bals and Lamberta Snellenberg in Utrecht on February 3, 1937. His parents were simple, Catholic citizens from the traditional Wijk C in Utrecht, who traded in animal-waste products. Just before the Second World War, they moved to the working-class district Ondiep in the same city.
Organizing and programming was Bals like a glove. During his time at highschool, the Catholic Bonifatius Lyceum in Utrecht, he set up a small singing group - for which Bals wrote his own lyrics on well-known pop songs - and was the leader of the club Dragnet; a small group of friends that used to listen to music from the American Forces Network in Germany on the radio, play records and gamble. Furthermore, he contributed to Minjon, AVRO radio's programme for youth, and the school newspaper Stemmen. His fellow students describe him as 'a solitary, not particularly nice boy, who liked arranging and organizing things and preferred to be in charge.'
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