Hillie Molenaar left school at 15 and worked as a cleaner, waitress, bookkeeper and potato-peeler before finding her niche as a documentary filmmaker in 1974 when, at the age of 29, she made her first film, Protest Garden. She was assistant to the legendary Jons Ivens before she formed Molenwijk Film with Joop van Wijk in 1978. Jointly, they have produced and directed a dozen award-winning documentaries and short films, including The Factory [1980], Isingiro Hospital [1993] and Crossroads [1990]. She has since formed her own production company, HM Films.

In her youth, she thought she could change the world. Now, all she hopes to do is show another point of view. In her first documentary on abortion, she tried to show that the issue was more complex than simply taking a pro- or anti- stance. Then she went behind the Iron Curtain, where she found no enemy, only ordinary people living their lives. Whilst she does not identify with any one style of filmmaking, her technique is recognisable by virtue of the respect she shows “ordinary people” and the way she encourages them to express themselves in her films.

Molenaar believes that filmmakers must know what they want and be willing to fight for it, to have an “elephant skin” while maintaining a necessary flexibility. “Directing is a horrible job”, she says.

Molenaar was a guest of the 2000 Festival courtesy of the Royal Netherlands Embassy and Holland Film and acted as a tutor on the Close Encounters Laboratory (2000). She introduced the first screenings of each of her films.