Born in Amsterdam in 1949.
Netherlands Film Academy (1968-1972).
Founded, together with a group of fellow students, the dutch film magazine Skrien in 1968; regularly published articles about film in periodicals and newspapers in the following decade.
Right after graduation from the film academy in 1972, she was employed as the script girl in the production of the most popular dutch movie of all time, Turkish Delight. Next, she acted as assistant director for several fiction films.
In 1974 she was a co-founder of the Amsterdams Stadsjournaal [Amsterdam City Newsreel], a film collective in which she participated until 1980.
Her feature debut Golven [the Waves] was the first adaptation to the screen of a novel by Virginia Woolf. It was an art house box office success in 1982.
So far, she directed over 40 fiction films and documentaries. She has also directed several theatre plays.

Feature films:

1998 – ONE MAN AND HIS DOG

       (Silver Dolphin, International Filmfestival of Troia for best actor)

1996 – IT’S STINGINESS, GENTLEMEN

1993 – FORT NAARDEN

1990 – CROCODILES IN AMSTERDAM

       (2d prize Festival International de Films des Femmes, Montreal;

       Axel Award, Gay & Lesbian Film Festival Copenhagen)

1988 – VOYAGE WITHOUT END based on a text by Peter Rosei

1985 – ORNITHOPTER

1983 – GIOVANNI

       (special jury prize Nederlandse Filmdagen)

1982 - THE WAVES based on the novel by Virginia Woolf                            

       (best script Nederlandse Filmdagen)

Documentaries:

2019 – LEONIE, ACTRESS AND SPY

2016 – ONE LIFE IS NOT ENOUGH

2012 – DREAM & DEED

2009 – DE STELLING VAN AMSTERDAM – WATERLINIE – STILLE STADSGRENS

2008 – EXPLODED VIEW

2006 – UTRECHT CS

2004 – SEEN THROUGH OTHER EYES

2002 – ERASMUS’ TRACES

2000 – UNKNOWN CHILDREN

1995 – CARLO GINZBURG TRAVELLING TO THE WORLD OF THE DEAD

1994 – WAKERS AND DREAMERS

1994 – A WINTER IN ZUIDERWOUDE

1992 – AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 SNACKBARS

1988 – DISTANCES