FILMMAKER BIO

With a background in (visual) sociology, Martha turend to filmmaking, in the conviction that films can change the world.

Her films focus on the idea of change, both personal transformation and the transformation of society as we move, she believes, toward one society with one common home. In her films, longitudinal research projects of ‘transformative sociology’, Martha immerses herself for prolonged periods in another society or group, observing her inner change, and re-socialization.

In Searching for Mama Salone’s Secret’, Martha explores a shared fear of global religious division by immersing herself in a religiously integrated society, while being followed by a Muslim director. How will she change?

In Eva’s Mission, she explores the boundaries between the actress portraying a Holocaust survivor and the Holocaust survivor’s lived experience, exploring how the past shapes our present, both of Self and of society. Following Auschwitz survivor and Anne Frank’s stepsister Eva Schloss-Geiringer for a decade, Martha observes both her own inner transformation and of society against the backdrop of an erosion of the post-war world order.

In her visual sociology photography project I Kiss the World, Martha explores the loss of national culture and identity as we succumb to a global culture, asking strangers to dress her up in their ‘national past’, while ‘kissing’ transforms the relationship between past and future into the present reality of the global city.

---

Searching for Mama Salone’s Secret

Searching for Mama Salone’s Secret a feature-length documentary film, explores a simple but urgent question: what can the world learn from its most religiously tolerant country? Independently produced, the film uncovers the unlikely but true story of Sierra Leone’s peaceful religious coexistence in a time of rising global polarisation. Combining a story of personal transformation and transformative sociology, the film investigates this reality through cinematic storytelling and sociological inquiry – and what it could mean for the future of the world.  

Status – Halfway through production.

Financing – currently raising completion funds.

Research & Collaborations – Developed in close collaboration with the Sierra Leonean community. Endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion and Belief. Outreach partner: religions for Peace.

Recognition – The sociological research underpinning the film was selected for presentation at the International Sociological Association (ISA) 2025. The project was also selected for development at Sundance Collab.

---

Eva’s Mission

My second feature-length documentary Eva’s Mission is an author-driven sociological documentary exploring the Holocaust from a contemporary perspective through the learning relationship between an actress and the Holocaust survivor that she portrayed, Eva Schloss – Anne Frank’s posthumous stepsister. When I was cast in the play And Then They Came for Me, first in the part of Hitler Youth, then as the lead of Eva Schloss-Geiringer (1929 – 2026), it was the beginning of following Eva for almost a decade, trying to understand the horrors of the Holocaust against the surge of today’s neopopulism, xenophobia, hatred and polarization.

Eva’s Mission is supported by the Amsterdam Art Council (AFK), Cinecrowd, the Gravin van Byland Foundation, the Foundation Democracy & Media, a Summer Film Residency at the University of South Carolina, USA amongst others. Eva’s Mission was selected for the Pitching Sessions of the European Documentary Network (EDN) at Lisbon Docs.

Website: www.evasmission.com Facebook Page Eva’s Mission

I KISS THE WORLD

‘I Kiss The World’ is a visual arts multi-media project that visually explores my concept of the ‘fluidities of identity’ in the global city and is a collaboration with West-End photographer Simon Annand ). The photo exhibition premiered in Amsterdam in May 2014 and ran for four month in the Photogallery in the Central Hall of the OBA (Amsterdam Library).iKISS THE WORLD is a sociological visual exploration of national identity in the global city. An on-going collaboration between actress / sociologist Martha Van Der Bly and photographer Simon Annand, the first iKISS THE WORLD exhibition took place in the Photogallery of the Centraly Library Amsterdam (OBA). www.amsterdam.info/events/ikiss/