City One Minutes-makers Jasper Huizinga and Lotte Veltman about Daily Ritual, their minute in Groningen from 3PM till 4PM.

Since 10 years the two filmmakers from Groningen are a directors duo. Their aim was to capture a ritual for their minute. “Everybody sais about their own profession: ‘It’s different every day’. But in fact every profession knows its own rituals.” Veltman and Huizinga asked themselves what happens in the city between 3PM and 4PM. “People are in their office, schools are out and others start to do their groceries. In association with that, we found the ritual of opening a bar. In Groningen most of them open at 4PM.

The duo filmed Ewout van Eck opening his business Café Mulder. “With Daily Ritual we wanted to drop a sphere: it’s dark at the beginning of the film, you don’t really know whether it’s day or night. A pub is always in a certain time gap. Only if the owner opens the shutters, you see that it’s noon and you hear the bells of 4PM play.

In their daily life the duo makes documentaries, TV series and commissioned films. “That’s why we can work really well together.” For Daily Ritual Jasper handled the camera while Lotte directed.

“Everything went well. As a bonus the café opened exactly at 4PM, so we could capture the sound of the bells.”