The Propagandist
Using previously unpublished interviews, family films, and propaganda, the film tells the story of Dutch filmmaker Jan Teunissen (1898–1975). As head of the Film Department of the SS and the Dutch Nazi party, he became the most powerful man in Dutch cinema during WWII. Nicknamed the “Film King” and “Dutch Leni Riefenstahl,” he was a well-known filmmaker before the war. The Propagandist examines what drove him to the Nazi regime and the manipulative power of film.
Luuk Bouwman has made several feature-length documentaries, including GERLACH, THE LAST FARMER (2023, IDFA Best Dutch Film Award) with Aliona van der Horst, IT IS TRUE BUT NOT HERE (2017) about artist and cult musician Dick Verdult and ALL AGAINST ALL (2019) about the rise of fascism in the Netherlands, which premiered at IDFA and for which he was awarded the IDFA Stipend 2023. His documentaries are driven by extensive research and long-term engagement with his subjects, revealing processes and mechanisms.
