Using previously unpublished interviews, family films, and propaganda films, The Propagandist tells the story of the rise and fall of Dutch filmmaker Jan Teunissen (1898-1975). As head of the Department of Film of the Dutch Nazi Party and SS, he became the most powerful man in the Dutch film industry during World War II. Teunissen, nicknamed the Film King and the Dutch Leni Riefenstahl, was a well-known filmmaker before the war. What drove him to become part of the Nazi regime? The Propagandist questions the boundaries between documentary and propaganda and the role of propagandists — how they spread images, narratives, misinformation, and ideology — documentary about boundless ambition and the manipulative power of film.
Content warning: violence
CREW:
Director: Luuk Bouwman
Producer: Ilja Roomans
Cinematographer: Jan Pieter Tuinstra
Sound: Jillis Schriel
Production
HUMAN supported by, The Netherlands Film Fund, The Netherlands Film Production Incentive, NPO-fund, CoBO, Beeld & Geluid
Director
Luuk Bouwman
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 their processes and mechanisms.Selected Filmography
The Propagandist (2024), Gerlach, the Last Farmer (2023), All Against All (2019), Dick Verdult, It Is True but Not Here (2017) 
