What You Like or What You Think You Like
2022 | 4k Video | 24’04”
The video What You Like or What You Think You Like features a fitness TV show in which an instructor and his two participants talk about the essence of people, objects or even the exact meaning of words. They discuss the expected size of a knee brace, what makes a washing machine a washing machine and how, if you have a distinctive hairstyle, you instantly become a meeting point for strangers.
The three people might be working on their own bodies and mind, but there is clearly a gap between how they see themselves and how others perceive them. As they alternate one exercise with another, they share the disappointment and embarrassment they experience when their expectations turn out to be wrong. Something that becomes even more apparent when they also begin to share the fixed ideas they have of one another.
“Look, when you start to take a washing machine apart, there’s a point where a washing machine stops being a washing machine and starts being just scrap metal. And you went beyond that point. It’s scrap metal now. And the thing is, we don’t take scrap metal.”
Realized with the support of the Dutch Film Fund and Mondriaan Fonds
Actors: Tarek Halaby, Yolanda Mpelé & Dennis Tiecken
Produced by Marcel IJzerman & Feiko Beckers
Director of Photography: Marcel IJzerman
Editor: Sander Houtkruijer
Music: Matthieu Beck
Coaching: Shila Anaraki
Camera Operator: Dai-Wé Li
Camera Assistant: Dwight Cooman
Grip: Anne Meeuwis
Sound: Henk-Jelle de Groot
Gaffer: Tjeerd Melchers
Light Assistants: Maxime Vallentin & Guus Hoogeboom
Make-up Artist: Suzanne Pelgrim
Script Assistant: Sarah Cale
Color Correction: Marcel IJzerman
Transport: Steven Jouwersma
Catering: Jean-Pierre Voogt
Equipment: Camuse, Breda & Maloney, Amsterdam
Insurances: DSV, Hilversum
Special thanks to Alex Winters, Benno Steinegger, Carlotta Bailly-Borg, Daan Millius, David Weber-Krebs, Eva Schippers, Francesca Grilli, Galerie Stigter Van Doesburg, Heike Langsdorf, Huibert Spoorenburg, Jack Zuidema, Jeanne Detallante, KASK School of Arts, Luanda Casella, Maureen Ho & Ronja Winters
Filmed at Allard Studio’s, Amsterdam