A retrospective of events in director Louis van Gasteren’s life from 1964 to 1969, filmed by him in that period and reflected on from his vantage point over 40 years later at the age of 90.
In Rotterdam, Baas (Lex Goudsmit) sells a batch of fake diamonds to a gang of international con-men. They pay in dollars: a suitcase full of banknotes is sent on a ship from Rotterdam to Hamburg. The wife of one of the gang members (played by Josephine van Gasteren – sister of director Louis)...
With a focus on the everyday life of a gay couple, and featuring interviews with a number of gay people, the film gives an account of the difficulties faced by this minority.
The municipality of Nagele came about entirely on the drawing board and is an international symbol for the makeability of the Netherlands. Van Gasteren became fascinated by the Nagele project, and followed it from the drawing board and models to the construction of this new community. The final...
When Margaret threatens to crack down on juvenile delinquency during a fifth-grade class election, three school bullies back their own candidate, Tyler, a new kid reluctant to run. With help from slick campaign manager, Lewis "the Loser" Stanley and friend Stu, Tyler takes political power to new...
Fifty years after making A New Village on New Land (1960), Van Gasteren and co-director Joke Meerman return to Nagele. What has Nagele become? He interviews residents and local officials and sees that over the course of fifty years, this model village has changed dramatically. The world turned out...
Promotional film for the former Dutch post and telecom company PTT. The occasion was the complete automation of the Dutch telephone network on 22 May 1962. Warffum in the province of Friesland was the last village to be connected. The film follows a number of people in various parts of the country...
Footage of a sunny village square in Sardinia leads to humorous, philosophical reflections on reality and the role of the ‘objectively recording’ documentary maker. Van Gasteren sees the square as a backdrop in his film, and the chance passers-by as extras. Then, as a ‘director of reality’,...
