‘How Now, House?’ investigates our yearning to leave traces behind through the prism of one house in Rotterdam. Using archives, personal memories and the philosophy of time, the film questions whether a space can ever really belong to one person, or time period, at all.

'How Now, House?' exists as a 13 minute single-channel short film and as site-specific installations.

Photos on this page are stills from the short film and documentation from three installation presentations, at Galerie Lecq in Rotterdam, June 7-29, 2025, at FilmDak, TOT Project, Oranjeboomstudios, in September 2024 and at Het Wilde Weten in November 2023.

CREDITS for the short film:

A film by Tess Martin

Performer: Bianca Casaburi

Music & Sound Design: Ruben van Asselt

Cinematography: Matija Pekić

Color Grading: Gideon van der Stelt

Title design: Alice Saey

Post animator: Arnaud van Vliet

Movement consultant: Marijke de Vos

Script consultant: Lenina Ungari

Dutch language consultant: Rhea Bogaart

Vinyl song:  Danza della Tarantella by Bonjour Bonjour

Voices by: Nadine Ghandour, Tess Martin, Matteo Pasquini, Giorgia Vendetti, Riccardo Santalucia, Endrie Setijasih, Marvin Dee, Pablo Bravo Chaves, Petru Codreanu, Annique Marthanna Nahumury, Sofie Wentholt, Esther Muñoz Grootveld, Mathieu Wijdeven

Many thanks to theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli, whose words form the basis of the dialogue of the Scientist.

Many thanks to all my housemates, and not to our landlord.

This film was made possible by the Netherlands Film Fund and CBK Rotterdam and was also supported by Het Wilde Weten and the Rotterdam City Archive.

SCREENINGS:

ShorTS International Film Festival Maremetraggio, Trieste, Italy, June 30, 2025

Sheffield DocFest, Sheffield, UK, June 21-22, 2025

Athens International Film and Video Festival, Athens, Ohio, USA, April 20, 2025

PRESS:

June 27, 2025, Animation for Adults, Italian premiere

June 13, 2025, Animated Documentary Blog podcast with Carla MacKinnon

May 26, 2025, Journeys into Genealogy podcast with Emma Cox

May 2025, Animation for Adults, installation

May 2025, ‘Binocular Briefs’ by Chris Robinson, Animation World Network

March 2025, Animation for Adults, festival premiere