Docmakers

Drawing on previously unpublished interviews, journals, family footage and propaganda films, The Propagandist tracks the rise and fall of the Dutch filmmaker Jan Teunissen, who lived from 1898 to 1975.

In the year before he retires, Gregor Weber, a globally renowned Vermeer expert and flamboyant curator at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, works on his big dream: the largest Vermeer exhibition ever. Together with Weber, a number of enthusiasts and experts go in search of what truly makes a Vermeer a Vermeer.

Gerlach van Beinum is one of the last old-school crop farmers near Amsterdam. Surrounded by the advancing exponents of modernity—distribution centers, highways, multinationals—he moves through the seasons at his own pace. We follow him for several years in his fields on the outskirts of Amsterdam. With the help of his best friend Rinus, he grows potatoes, beetroot, grain, and strawberries, which he sells from his barn. In between these activities, his farmhouse proves to be a gathering spot for neighbors and friends, who share with him their dry wit and simple joy.

George Anthony Morton, a classical painter who spent ten years in federal prison, travels to his hometown to paint his family members. Going back forces George to face his past in his quest to rewrite the script of his life.

Following the death of their parents, Harriet and her siblings must unpack their childhood fears as they prepare to sell their dragon-filled Oxfordshire home.

Rapper and breakdancer Teekay from Eindhoven is known for his somersaults and vlogs that are causing a stir. During the corona riots in 2021, he not only gained national fame as a vlog reporter, but also ended up briefly in jail. After his junior year, Teekay wants to change course and, above all, be an example for other young people. In the film he takes us into his life and talks about his childhood in foster homes, the mistakes he made and about his dreams. What is Teekay looking for?

In 2019, the leakage of messages exchanged by authorities in Brazil undermines the credibility of Operation Lava Jato. A group of journalists follows the unfolding of the case, in a sequence of crises that puts Brazilian democracy at risk.

Lina’s plan was simple. She wanted to become a camerawoman. She liked filming details of life and people around her, mainly during a bright sunny day in Damascus. But with the uprising in Syria, Lina was slowly absorbed into documenting the impact on people’s lives. It didn’t take long before events escalated, and arrests, torture, and potentially life-threatening situations became a reality for Lina to negotiate on a daily basis. She had to adapt. She invented personas and aliases. They each helped her navigate life under a new norm. What was a simple plan, turned into a complex web of identities, which seemed then a small price in exchange for her liberty to continue to hold the camera.

It was a year of extremes for Jochem Myjer: he performed in Carré one-hundred times but at the same time struggled with the tumors growing in his back. How did he keep himself going?

13-year-old Wessel faces a dilemma: will he become a butcher, like his tough father and grandfather or does he prefer to work with living animals?

The incredible life story of a Soviet soldier of Tatar descent who was captured by the Nazis during WWII. Today, his daughter Sana is tracing the path of her silent father, trying to understand what made him the man she knew as a child, through his diaries, as well as various personal and public archives and registries. As she accompanies Sana in her journey, filmmaker Aliona van der Horst excavates film archives, to find traces of those millions of Soviet soldiers who were caught in the crossfire of fighting between dictators, who were there but were easily left out of the narrative of the global war.

A Parked Life is an intimate portrait of Petar Bonchev, one of the hundreds of thousands of Eastern European truck drivers who work in the west.

The Long River Slides is a musical ode to sadness. 'De Kift' frontman Ferry Heijne sets sail and meets people willing to share their stories with him. The poetic brass band punk provides comfort along the waterfront.

What does it take to go against a multinational? Esther Kiobel’s husband Barinem was one of the men executed in 1995 after revolting against Shell’s pollution of Ogoniland (Nigeria). Almost 25 years later, Esther takes Shell to court in the Netherlands.