Spectrum Film

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) accompanies it to keep an eye on things. But the ship strands off the island of Terschelling and a race ensues between Baas, the gang, the shipowner and the insurer to get to the ship first and secure the case of money.

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 result is the film A New Village on New Land from 1960 – the year in which the first residents moved into their new, modern homes. Among the early pioneers in Nagele were many farmers who were to cultivate the newly reclaimed land.

Short documentary about the construction of tramlines in the centre of Amsterdam

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’, he gives an ironic commentary on what he sees. “For a moment I thought, from what source of information am I thinking up what I see. Or, did I just see exactly what I thought.”

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 heights as the class deals with corruption and impeachment, courtesy of revenge-minded Russ Thoreau.

Short film documenting a performance by poet Ted Jones in combination with music by the Peter Kuiters Modern Jazz Group.

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 as they make phone calls. The wife of a pastry chef in Maastricht reports a malfunction; an accountant in Amsterdam calls his girlfriend to say he’s absconded with the cash; and an engineer at the delta hydraulic works receives a call telling him that he’s now a father. The PTT’s engineer, working at the central switchboard in Utrecht, links all these scenes together. The film gives a great impression of the prim-and-proper Netherlands of the 1950s and early ’60s, with its sweet, bouncy ’50s style and the appropriate voice-over commentary.

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 not to be as makeable as previously thought, and adjustments have had to be made on all fronts. The homes were too small, social cohesiveness is under strain and the original ideas, based on ideals, seem outdated. Van Gasteren also gets architects such as Umberto Barbieri and architectural historian Ed Taverne to speak, looking back at the work and ideals of their predecessors.