Director Heidi Hongman died Saturday at the age of 70. Her family said Sunday that the Peruvian-born Honigmann “died peacefully in the presence of her loved ones after a long struggle with MS and cancer.” She died in Amsterdam.

Honigmann is considered one of the greatest Dutch documentary filmmakers. It has caused a stir both nationally and internationally, among other things, Metal and gloom (1993), Oh, it’s normal (1996), underground orchestra (1997) and crazy (1999).

In total, Honigmann has produced more than forty films. Music has always played an important role. And in the process of making the film, improvisation and intuition were very important to the director.

Honigmann was born in 1951 in Lima, the capital of Peru. At the end of the seventies she settled in the Netherlands. She has many international awards to her name.

In the Netherlands, she won the Golden Calf twice: in 1999 for her film crazy About the experiences of the Dutch blue helmets and in 2006 for their documentary film forever† Located in the famous Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

In 2016, Hönigmann won the Prinz Bernhard Kulturfonds Prize, a presentation award for someone who “has made a special contribution in the cultural field”.

Honigmann achieved worldwide success

The director has produced most of her films in Holland, but she has been successful all over the world. She has had several retrospective and past performances at major venues such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2003), Center Pompidou in Paris (2010) and the Munich International Documentary Film Festival (2020). In 2007 she received the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Film Festival.

It has been known for some time that Hönigmann suffers from an incurable disease. for her documentary no hi camino From 2021 she traveled to her native Peru and looked into her business with important people from her life.

This wasn’t supposed to be her last movie. In interviews about the release of no hi camino She stressed that she still had countless ideas.

The director leaves behind her husband, son and stepson.