Okki Poortvliet
Design BA: Animation & Illustration + Time Based Design
Minerva Art Academy- Hanze
Graduates: 2021
Specialisms: Film / Printmaking / Drawing
My location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Okki Poortvliet
First Name: Okki
Last Name: Poortvliet
University / College: Minerva Art Academy- Hanze
Course / Program: Design BA: Animation & Illustration + Time Based Design
Graduates: 2021
Specialisms: Film / Printmaking / Drawing
My Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Website: Click To See Website
About
Okki Poortvliet (1999) is a documentary filmmaker, artist, and designer. She grew up in Odoorn, a small village in the north of the Netherlands, and studied Design at Minerva Art Academy and Philosophy at the University of Groningen. She developed a distinctive film style in which story and imagery go hand in hand. Okki’s films are anthropological, experimental, and and place a strong emphasis on visual composition. In addition to being screened in cinemas, her work is often presented as part of installations and exhibitions.Okki is fascinated by people, their surroundings, and their worldviews. This fascination comes to life in films such as IJswee, about Manus who sharpens ice skates; World's Greatest Missile Builder, featuring Jippe who aims to outdo Kim Jong-un; The Flaghoisters, in which Ricardo nails his regional flag to a windmill; and Over the Cattlegrid, following Robert who cycles through the forest every morning at 5:30.Alongside her film and installation work, Okki creates drawings, posters, and texts. Starting in September 2025, she will spend two years as a research fellow at the Master of Film program at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam.
When is the moment you think: I'm going to hoist my regional flag? Who are these flaghoisters? And what does it mean to identify with your region? These are questions that filmmaker Okki Poortvliet, theatermaker Hans van der Werf and designer Vera Vos asked. So, they went through the whole of Drenthe, the region in the North of The Netherlands where all three of them grew up, to collect as many stories as possible from hoisters of the flag of Drenthe. The Flaghoisters is a film about the confrontation between the countryside and, as the Drents call it, “the city dwellers”. A story about a disappearing language, the safety of your village, creating each other, being proud, and just acting normal. Next to the film, Hans, Vera and Okki developed a theaterplay that was performed on different locationsin open airthroughout Drenthe.