SATURDAY NIGHT UNLIMITED

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The varied Saturday night programme on 17 January (together with the Friday night programme) forms the heart of the festival, with dozens of events on five stages.

Writers, poets and audience members come together for various programmes in a festive and informal atmosphere. The authors present work commissioned by the festival, read from their books, or discuss current issues.

There are programmes in English and in Dutch, making a "Language No Problem" enjoyment of the evening possible. You can see the schedule below, or download it here as a pdf.

Saturday guests include Karen Amstrong (UK), Reggie Baay, Wim Brands, Ian Buruma (US/NL), Jennifer Clement (US/Mexico), Leela Corman (US), Adriaan van Dis, Mira Feticu (NL/Romania), Louise O. Fresco, Dominique Goblet (Belgium), David Grossman (Israel), Stefan Hertmans, Bas Heijne, Cynthia McLeod (Suriname), Maaza Mengiste (US/Ethiopia), Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Ghana/UK), Gustaaf Peek, Nina Polak, David Van Reybrouck (Belgium), Vamba Sherif, Shantie Singh, Witold Szabłowski (Poland), and many more. One ticket allows access to all events.

Programme is subject to change.

Information

Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 from 20:00 to 01:00 hrs
Location Theater aan het Spui & Filmhuis Den Haag

Tijdschema 17 January

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Time Location
20:00 - 20:50 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 At the Home Front
20:00 - 20:55 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Sex, Comics, and Weltschmerz
20:00 - 20:50 Filmhuis - zaal 1 Documentary: Emerald Traces (Ida Does, 2014)
20:01 - 20:45 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Gustaaf Peek
20:05 - 20:01 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of my Life: Nina Polak
20:10 - 21:00 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Saturday Night Wintercafé: Who's Afraid of Youth
20:55 - 21:50 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Karen Armstrong Meets Bas Heijne
21:00 - 23:50 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Saturday Night Wintercafé
21:00 - 21:20 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Cynthia McLeod
21:00 - 21:40 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Forgotten Slavery in the Dutch East Indies
21:00 - 22:00 Filmhuis - zaal 1 Short Films: "At Home in the Netherlands"
21:20 - 21:40 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Stefan Hertmans
21:40 - 22:00 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Louise O. Fresco
21:45 - 22:01 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 Ian Buruma Introduces Witold Szabłowski
21:55 - 22:50 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 This is Our Way — Public Discussion
22:10 - 23:00 Filmhuis - zaal 1 The Film Choices of Adriaan van Dis
22:15 - 22:35 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Maaza Mengiste
22:30 - 23:20 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2 New Talent in the House!
22:35 - 22:55 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Dominique Goblet
22:55 - 23:50 Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1 Poets in the House
23:10 - 23:30 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Vamba Sherif
23:10 - 00:40 Filmhuis - zaal 1 Film: A Poet - Unconcealed Poetry (Garin Nugroho, Indonesia, 1999)
23:30 - 23:50 Filmhuis - Studio A The Text of My Life: Bas Heijne
23:50 - 01:00 Theater aan het Spui - foyer Dancing into Saturday Night

Line-up

Martijn Knol

(Zeist, NL, 1973) was a comedian and worked in advertising before writing his 2003 debut De Duiker (The Diver), which recreates a striking portrait of an era through the distinctive speech of three students. The romantic tragedy Aphinar followed in 2007, in which Knol alternates between angry interior monologues and a sensual and tarnished love story. His major novel Alles kan kapot (Everything Kaputt) was published in 2011, about the fates of three generations of a family. The book owes a literary debt to Céline, Woolf, and David Foster Wallace (among others), but above all it shows off an authentic and innovative voice. Anything is possible in Knol's work. The dead can rise from their ashes and demand to regain their position in a book. Knol also likes to play with language and style. The Dutch Literary Fund chose Alles kan kapot as one of the best Dutch books of 2011. Besides novels, Knol writes short stories, essays, blogs, and criticism, and is an editor with the literary magazine Tirade. He's currently at work on a new novel.
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Simon(e) van Saarloos

is a writer, artistic collaborator and curator. They are the author of Against Ageism. A Queer Manifesto (2023); Take ‘Em Down. Scattered Monuments and Queer Forgetting (2021) and Playing Monogamy (2019) as well as several books in Dutch: Herdenken herdacht (2019); Enz. Het Wildersproces (2018); the novel De vrouw die (2016); the collection of columns Ik deug / deug niet ( 2015) and Het monogame drama (2015). . Van Saarloos works as an independent curator of public programming and artistic collaborations. A current PhD candidate in Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, they are interested in Black feminist engagements with quantum physics and focused on the rhetorical (im)possibility of existence without defense. Van Saarloos is currently writing a new book for AK Press, titled Trans Despair: Staying Unrelated and Insecure.

Go the website of Simon(e) van Saarloos
Instagram: @svansaarloos
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At the Home Front

Information

Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 20:00 tot 20:50 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
Is there still such a thing as "home" when you return after a war? How do you rebuild a life? How do you reconstitute a civilization? Ian Buruma wrote Year Zero: A History of 1945, about the immediate aftermath of WWII. Stefan Hertman's War and Turpentine describes World War I through the eyes of his grandfather. Both authors choose a notably personal approach; Buruma, too, used the experiences of a family member—his father—as motivation to delve into world history. How does it affect a story when the source is so close to home? Is it possible to reflect reality on the basis of a detail? David Van Reybrouck poses these questions to the authors. Louise O. Fresco starts off the programme with a commentary. Meer details bekijken

Sex, Comics, and Weltschmerz

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 20:00 tot 20:55 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
Graphic novelists Leela Corman of New York and the Walloon Dominique Goblet engage in conversation with Peter Breedveld about the harsh realities and personal tragedies behind their art, and about the sensual merging of text and drawings. In English. Meer details bekijken

Documentary: Emerald Traces (Ida Does, 2014)

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 20:00 tot 20:50 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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For this documentary, writer Yvonne Keuls went in search of visible and not-so-visible traces of the colonial relationship between The Hague and the former Dutch East Indies. The tour takes us to many well-known and unknown places that gain a new historical context in light of the writer's memories and stories. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Gustaaf Peek

Information

Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 20:01 tot 20:45 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Wim Brands and Fidan Ekiz. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

The Text of my Life: Nina Polak

Information

Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 20:05 tot 20:01 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Wim Brands and Fidan Ekiz. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

Saturday Night Wintercafé: Who's Afraid of Youth

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 20:10 tot 21:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
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During this first hour, MC Francis Broekhuijsen presents students from the Hague secondary schools reading their poems, the outcome of a series of school workshops. They perform with poet Maarten van der Graaff. Meer details bekijken

Karen Armstrong Meets Bas Heijne

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 20:55 tot 21:50 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
Conflicts over religion are more topical than ever, but religion is as old as the hills. Throughout the ages, people have established temples, churches, and mosques to honour their god(s). Where does the deep-seated need to believe in something come from? Why do people go so far as to wage war in the name of religion? What is religion, anyway? What is the function of faith for humankind? Since her debut, Through the Narrow Gate, in which she described her experiences as a lapsed nun, Karen Armstrong has developed into an expert on Christianity, Judaism and Islam. In her latest book, The Fields of Blood, she investigates the sometimes bloody, sometimes peaceful history of these religions. In English. Meer details bekijken

Saturday Night Wintercafé

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 21:00 tot 23:50 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
The Wintercafé is the meeting point of the festival, where writers and the audience come together, welcomed by MC Francis Broekhuijsen. Also at the Wintercafé: refreshments, book sales and booksigning at the Paagman book stall, music by Ud player Mohamed Ahaddaf and DJ Socrates, and more.

Booksigning sessions at the Paagman bookstall
21:00 – 21:20 Louise O. Fresco & Stefan Hertmans
21:30 – 21:45 Leela Corman & Dominique Goblet
22:00 – 22:20 Reggie Baay & Karen Armstrong
23:00 – 23:20 Bas Heijne & Ian Buruma Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Cynthia McLeod

Information

Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 21:00 tot 21:20 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Wim Brands and Fidan Ekiz. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

Forgotten Slavery in the Dutch East Indies

Information

Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 21:00 tot 21:40 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
When slavery comes up, everyone thinks of Suriname and the Antilles but never of Indonesia. Why has the Dutch history of more than 260 years of slave trade in the Dutch East Indies been collectively forgotten? Exactly 155 years after the (official) abolition of slavery in the Dutch East Indies, Reggie Baay published Daar werd wat gruwelijks verricht (Something Terrible Happened There), a non-fiction book about the unknown history of slavery in the Dutch East Indies. Paul van der Gaag leads a conversation about forgetting, remembrance, and slavery in the "other former Dutch colony." In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

Short Films: "At Home in the Netherlands"

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 21:00 tot 22:00 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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Keeping the festival's "At Home" theme in mind, Leendert de Jong of the Filmhuis Den Haag put together a series of (ultra)-short Dutch films: 11.59 (Johan Kramer, 2004), about prejudice against young Moroccans and Turks, with Gouden Kalf-winner Nasrdin Dchar; Burka Boogie Woogie (Sietske Tjallingii, 2005), a sensual and graphic dance; Olifantenvoeten (Elephant's Feet) (Dan Geesin, 2011), about a "white foreigner"; Over Vis & Revolutie (On Fish & Revolution) (Margien Rogaar, 2008), about why Poles catch more fish; Rihla (Gerbrand Burger, 2009), about a man who travels from East to West; and Roken als een Turk (Smoking Like a Turk) (Remy Heugten, 2012), about the circumcision of a Turkish boy. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Stefan Hertmans

Information

Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 21:20 tot 21:40 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Wim Brands and Fidan Ekiz. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Louise O. Fresco

Information

Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 21:40 tot 22:00 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Wim Brands and Fidan Ekiz. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

Ian Buruma Introduces Witold Szabłowski

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 21:45 tot 22:01 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
A conversation about the need to ask difficult questions, the importance of investigative journalism, and the rise of literary non-fiction. Witold Szabłowski is an award-winning Polish "literary" journalist and Ian Buruma is internationally acclaimed as one of the most influential thinkers of our time. In English. Meer details bekijken

This is Our Way — Public Discussion

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 21:55 tot 22:50 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
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This is our way, and that is their way... How do you deal with one another in an environment where so many cultures live side by side? What language do you speak? What do you do on one another's holidays? In the Netherlands we can't quite figure it out. Tonight three writers—two of them from countries with long histories of multiculturalism—provide ideas for dos and don'ts. No laws, just manners. The public will discuss these ideas. Do we adopt them or not? In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

The Film Choices of Adriaan van Dis

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 22:10 tot 23:00 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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Adriaan van Dis once hosted the VPRO public-television programme "Zomergasten" ("Summer Guests"), in which he talked to guests about film and TV clips. Tonight we turn it around. Film journalist Bert Jansma interviews Van Dis about his favourites. We look at clips from Un prophète (A Prophet, 2009), about the prison system in France; The Attack (2012), about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, 1964), the musical starring Catherine Deneuve and Michel Legrand's enchanting soundtrack; and much more. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Maaza Mengiste

Information

Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 22:15 tot 22:35 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Wim Brands and Fidan Ekiz. In English. Meer details bekijken

New Talent in the House!

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 22:30 tot 23:20 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 2
Five powerful new female stars in the literary firmament talk about their ultimate sense of being at home in specially written commentaries. Much-discussed debutante Nina Polak and her up-and-coming colleagues Bregje Hofstede, Mira Feticu, Roos van Rijswijk, and Shantie Singh appear in a varied program. Presented by Simone van Saarloos. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Dominique Goblet

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 22:35 tot 22:55 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Fado singer Cristina Branco joins in. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Wim Brands and Fidan Ekiz. In English. Meer details bekijken

Poets in the House

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 22:55 tot 23:50 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1
Saturday Night Unlimited ends on a festive note with poetic presentations by writers who not only produce wonderful prose but also have a poet’s heart beating within. Come listen to David Grossman's reading from Falling Out of Time, and to poems by Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Jennifer Clement, and Stefan Hertmans. With improvisations on cello by Ernst Reijseger. In Dutch and English. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Vamba Sherif

Information

Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 23:10 tot 23:30 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Wim Brands and Fidan Ekiz. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

Film: A Poet - Unconcealed Poetry (Garin Nugroho, Indonesia, 1999)

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 23:10 tot 00:40 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 1
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Poet Ibrahim Kadir survived the massacre of (alleged) communists by the Suharto government that caused half a million to two million deaths. In this film, Garin Nugroho reinterprets the mass murder; Kadir plays himself in this political drama about his arrest and imprisonment in Aceh during the 1960s. The prisoners determine the film's rhythm by singing didong poetry together with Kadir. Just like him, many of the actors lived through the tragedy. This film was made two years after Suharto's abdication, when the purges of the 1960s became a topic in Indonesian cinema. In Indonesian with English subtitles. Meer details bekijken

The Text of My Life: Bas Heijne

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 23:30 tot 23:50 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
In the Filmhuis Studio the festival's guest writers present their favourite literary texts and explain why a particular poem, novel excerpt, or song lyric influenced their life and work. Which memory, what feeling does this text call up for them? A continuous interview programme, in which the audience also talks with the writers. Hosted by Wim Brands and Fidan Ekiz. In Dutch. Meer details bekijken

Dancing into Saturday Night

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Date and time Saturday 17 January 2015 23:50 tot 01:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - foyer
Dancing into the night with DJ Socrates. His incendiary Afro Beat and Tropical Funk, Reggae, sultry Cumbia grooves, and a dash of Electro Swing add up to a musical feast. Meer details bekijken

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