A Dutch documentary film is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

made by a director of (partly) Dutch origin. Dutch documentary films are not necessarily bound to Dutch topics or locations in the Netherlands.

History

Before 1945

The first known Dutch documentary was made in 1916 by Johann Vierboom. The film ''Storm en noodweer in Nederland'' shows the 1916 flood disaster at the coasts of the

Zuiderzee The Zuiderzee or Zuider Zee (; old spelling ''Zuyderzee'' or ''Zuyder Zee'') was a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km (60 miles) inland and at most 50 km (30 miles) wide, with an ov ...

. Another documentary film of this era is ''Holland Neutraal: De leger- en vlootfilm'' (1917) by Willy Mullens. One of the most famous Dutch documentary film directors is

Joris Ivens Georg Henri Anton "Joris" Ivens (18 November 1898 – 28 June 1989) was a Dutch documentary filmmaker. Among the notable films he directed or co-directed are ''A Tale of the Wind'', ''The Spanish Earth'', ''Rain'', ''...A Valparaiso'', '' Mi ...

. Ivens started making his own films in 1928. The first was an avant-garde look at a Rotterdam bridge, ''The Bridge'' (''

De brug ''De brug'' (''The bridge'') is a 1928 Dutch documentary silent short film directed by Joris Ivens. This silent film explores the then-newly constructed Koningshaven Bridge in Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Ro ...

'', 1928). His later films were more realistic, socially concerned and polemical. ''

The Spanish Earth ''The Spanish Earth'' is a 1937 anti-fascist film made during the Spanish Civil War in support of the democratically elected Republicans, whose forces included a wide range from the political left like communists, socialists, anarchists, to moder ...

'' (1937) is one of his most famous films. In order to make internationally oriented documentaries, Ivens travelled to countries such as the Soviet Union, Spain, China, Australia and the United States.

1945-1965

After the 2nd World war, films of the acclaimed documentary film directors

Bert Haanstra Albert Haanstra (; 31 May 1916 – 23 October 1997) was a Dutch director of films and documentaries. His documentary ''Glass'' (1958) won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1959. His feature film '' Fanfare'' (1958) was t ...

and

Herman van der Horst Herman may refer to: People * Herman (name), list of people with this name * Saint Herman (disambiguation) * Peter Noone (born 1947), known by the mononym Herman Places in the United States * Herman, Arkansas * Herman, Michigan * Herman, Min ...

dominated Dutch cinema. Their work is internationally known as the ‘Dutch Documentary School’. A feature of the documentary films of this era is the use of human beings as a metaphor. Van der Horst and Haanstra both won prizes at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

. Van der Horst's most famous movie is ''

Faja Lobbi ''Faja Lobbi'' is a 1960 in film, 1960 Netherlands, Dutch-Suriname (Kingdom of the Netherlands), Surinamese award-winning documentary film, directed by Herman van der Horst. Its alternative titles include ''Fiery Love'' en ''Symphony of the Tropi ...

'' (1960), while Haanstra gained international fame for his renowned documentary Alleman ('' The Human Dutch'', 1963). Other directors of the Dutch Documentary School are

Charles Huguenot van der Linden Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

, and John Fernhout.

After 1965

After the era of the Dutch Documentary School, Dutch documentaries lost their uniformity. Instead of forming a group, joining forces and sharing stylistic trademarks, filmmakers mostly worked on independent projects or projects for television networks. Contemporary documentary directors have produced a wide variety of works. Contemporary directors with international successes are

Jos de Putter Jos de Putter (Terneuzen, 1959) is a Dutch film director, film critic and screenwriter who primarily makes Dutch documentary films. He studied political science and literature at the University of Leiden, and was a member of the editorial staff ...

, Heddy Honigmann, Johan van der Keuken and Leonard Retel Helmrich. In the late 20th century, documentary films are mainly shown on Dutch television networks, although some cinemas and art houses show Dutch documentary films. Nowadays, internet provides worldwide access to Dutch documentary films displayed online.

Dutch organizations regarding documentary films

Dutch funds

*The Netherlands Film Fund offers financial support to develop, actualize and distribute documentary film productions, designated for cinema. *Mediafonds offers subsidy for the development and production of, among other things, documentary films by public broadcasting.

Online broadcasting

Holland Doc 24 Nederland 24 was the collective name for a number of specialty television channels from the Dutch public broadcasting system. It also broadcasts a sample channel of the same name featuring a mix of programming from the other thematic channels. A co ...

is a Dutch digital documentary channel. The channel is continuously broadcasting sections of multiple public broadcasting channels, including the programs VPRO's Import, Zembla, Tegenlicht, NCRV Dokument, Profiel, Reporter and Het uur van de Wolf. *The Docsonline Foundation is an independent, Dutch non-profit organization with a mission to support professional documentary makers financially by exposing their work on a wide international scale to a paying audience. The foundation organizes a documentary on-demand website which provides a collection of over 400 documentary films.

Film festivals

The following Dutch film festivals are known to show (Dutch) documentary films: *

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam. Over a period of twelve days, it has screened more than 300 films and sold more than 250,000 tic ...

, the world's largest documentary film festival held annually in Amsterdam. *

Netherlands Film Festival The Netherlands Film Festival ( nl, Nederlands Film Festival) is an annual film festival, held in September and October of each year in the city of Utrecht. During the ten-day festival, Dutch film productions and co-productions are exhibited. Be ...

, an annual film festival held in Utrecht. Dutch film productions are exhibited, including documentaries. *

International Film Festival Rotterdam The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental f ...

, an annual film festival held in Rotterdam *Beeld voor Beeld festival in Amsterdam is an annual documentary film festival with a main focus on

ethnographic film An ethnographic film is a non-fiction film, often similar to a documentary film, historically shot by Western filmmakers and dealing with non-Western people, and sometimes associated with anthropology. Definitions of the term are not definitive. ...

. * Movies that matter Festival is an annual film festival, emphasizing on documentary films about human rights.

List of Dutch documentary films

Notes and references

{{Reflist

External links

Dutch directors guild
association for all Dutch TV and film directors.
Documentary producers Netherlands
association for acknowledged large and medium-sized Dutch documentary producers.
Article
by Dutch documentary film maker Jos de Putter (2011) ''Nederlandse documentaires in een tijd van schaarste''. Mediafonds magazine.
Netherlands Film Fund
official page

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Documentary