Geerten Harmens directs a heartfelt promo for Dutch manager and musician Pieter Tanis, who passed away earlier this year. The video for Nog Meer Met Je was created in collaboration with Dutch production company KXRXT and those who knew Pieter, and pays homage to his work as an artist and manager. Exploring grief and mental health, the video follows several people in deep mourning, who are attracted to a bright light in the sky, which seems to emit a healing energy.As they crowd around an enigmatic structure, they are given space to grieve and celebrate memories of Pieter, which appear as glitchy, lo-fi vignettes. It's a breathtaking and hard-hitting visual, and a wonderful tribute to a sorely-missed creative. "When I was 21 years old, I met Pieter Tanis as a manager on a music video for Ocho & Ibs, and had the chance to work with a young and ambitious manager with a powerful urge to shine light on others," says Harmens."When Pieter passed away in January, it hit me and the people around me like a ton of bricks. Coming from pure emotion, my dear friend Capri made a song with Youp and Guydo named ‘Nog Meer Met Je’ (More With You)."Together with production company KXRXT and the creatives in the Dutch film industry who knew (and didn’t know!) Pieter we’ve made this music video. The budget was 0 euros and everything you see on screen was meant as a way to honour Pieter’s existence."The cast was played by the actual people around Pieter going through the grief at the same time of the production. This created a surreal fiction meets documentary aspect to the production that was often times emotional on set. I never meant to write this story with a bigger moral clue. Coming from the people who worked on this, we hope to start a conversation about balance."Every creative has a burning urge to create, to change the world. Or as Pieter’s goal was: to change someone else’s world. This urge is often celebrated without any nuance, but we should watch out that this force doesn’t eat you alive."Every form of money this project generates will be donated to charity organisations of this theme. Grief, balance, mental health."
Rob Ulitski - 3 months ago