Dutch filmmaker, photographer, and author Johan van der Keuken made more than 50 films in his lifetime. According to Van der Keuken, a documentary filmmaker can never pretend to depict reality. “Film is not life, but it has to touch your own life. It is a second life,” he once said.

In 1965, he filmed his engaging neighbour girl Beppie as she wandered through Amsterdam, playfully discovering the world, strolling around the city with friends, and knocking on neighbours’ doors whether appropriate or not.  Van der Keuken: “Beppie was ten years old, and her smile could light up the Achtergracht, where I lived at the time. She is a real Amsterdam child, sweet as sugar, but you must watch your back.”

The short documentary Beppie is a disarming portrait, at the time very popular in all of the Netherlands.