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Premiere The Propagandist at IDFA



Together with Tijmen van Tol, Mathilde Wantenaar provided and created the music for the new documentary 'The Propagandist' by Luuk Bouwman.


Drawing on previously unpublished interviews, journals, family footage and propaganda films, The Propagandist tracks the rise and fall of the Dutch filmmaker Jan Teunissen, who lived from 1898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. Coming from a very wealthy background meant Teunissen was able to pursue his aspirations as a filmmaker early in life. During the Second World War he became the most powerful man in the Dutch film industry. As head of the Film Department of the SS and the Dutch Nazi party the NSB, he became known as “the film czar” and “the Dutch Leni Riefenstahl.” After the war, Teunissen was prosecuted and punished. He nevertheless continued to boast about his shrewdness and his connections with the higher-ups of the Nazi regime. A portrait gradually emerges of a man and his motivations. At the same time, this documentary about unbridled ambition and the manipulative power of film questions the boundaries between documentary and propaganda. It reveals how propagandists go about their work—how they disseminate images, stories, disinformation and ideology.


The premiere will take place on 16 November at Carré in Amsterdam. The Documentary will be screened several times at IDFA. Tickets are available here.

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