No False Echoes

Is it only in totalitarian regimes that art often functions as the last resort for expressing one’s opinion in public, or could art play the same role in so-called democracies where public debate at times is dominated an stifled by voices taking and being granted the seemingly exclusive right to speak? This is an important issues raised by Wendelien van Oldenborgh in ‘No False Echoes’. The title of the film refers to Dutch colonial policies on the first radio connections between the Netherlands and the Netherlands East Indies, in which the Philips broadcasting company for the Dutch Indies (PHOHI) as well as the transmitter Radio Kootwijk played a role. These policies aimed at preventing any unwanted voices or ideas from entering the colonial broadcasting spectrum, specifically nationalist ideology from the Indonesian republicans. ‘No False Echoes’ proposes that similar attitudes are still present in the current debates in the Netherlands. Van Oldenborgh conducted recordings at Radio Kootwijk with an invited audience and speakers who are citing from this history as well as converse spontaneously about these issues. | With: Salah Edin, Edwin Jurriëns. Wim Noordhoek, Baukje Prins, Joss Wibisono en Lina Campanella.