Biography

Janica Draisma was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in Zambia, before she came to Holland at the age of eight, with her Dutch parents. After an education in classical dance, she studied painting and film at the audio-visual department of the Rietveld Academy of Arts in Amsterdam. Graduating in 1990 she went to Paris where she took lessons in 'corporal mime' (Decroux) and saw a film a day. In 1992 she received the prize for 'Best Actress' (Golden Calf) at the Dutch Film festival for her leading role in 'Kyodai makes the big time' by the South-African director in Ian Kerkhof.

Since then Janica performed in several films, participated in a number of opera productions and developed her practice at 'Dasarts' (The Amsterdam School for Advanced Research in Theatre and Dance Studies) under the guidance of Ritsaert ten Cate.

At the same time she continued realizing and producing experimental films and theatre performances for which she founded her production company `The Draft Foundation' in 1995. In 1999 she further developed her skills as a scriptwriter at the 'Maurits Binger Film Institute' in Amsterdam, led by Jeanne Wikler.

In 2001 she was invited as `artist in residence' for one year at the `Cité Internationale des Arts' in Paris, where she developed a series of photographs and a film script, amongst others.

At present Janica is gradually developing three feature film scripts, which she will also direct: a Dutch film, a French musical and an Italian film. She is also a photographer and sometimes actress.
- IMDb mini biography by: Janica