Dear documentary enthusiasts and colleagues,

On Thursday, June 11, at 3:30 PM, the festive kick-off of the Beeld en Geluid project 'Documentary Maker in Focus' will take place in Theater 1 at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.
Every year from then on, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision selects a contemporary Dutch documentary filmmaker for a commissioned film and a DVD box set containing a film selection by the maker and the commissioned film. John Appel is the first filmmaker in this series.

John Appel has just begun the research for his commissioned film: a documentary based on footage from the B&G archive. During the presentation, Hans Westerhof will further introduce the project. Following this introduction, an extensive compilation of the documentaries directed by John Appel will be shown, followed by a dialogue between Bert Hogenkamp and John Appel.

You are cordially invited!

You can sign up for this afternoon at [email protected].
We hope to meet you in Hilversum on June 11th,

Kind regards,
Hans Westerhof, Bas Agterberg and Bert Hogenkamp

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John Appel (1958) studied Classical Language and Literature at the VU in Amsterdam and subsequently at the Film Academy, where he specialized in camera and documentary. He has been making documentaries since 1986 and has worked as a cameraman for over forty documentary films.

His fondness for the Dutch folk song genre is one of the themes in his work. It forms the common thread in the award-winning films JOHHNY MEIJER (1993) and ANDRÉ HAZES, ZIJ GELOOFT IN MIJ (1999). The film about André Hazes was awarded the Joris Ivens Award. It is the most successful documentary since Bert Haanstra's ALLEMAN, a film that is himself an old favorite of Appel.

Sport is another recurring theme. However, the filmmaker is not concerned with the game itself, but rather with the subjects touched upon in the events surrounding that game. In the films SENEGAL SURPLACE (2003) and AFSCHEID VAN DE SCHIPPERKADE (1996), the camera follows a cycling tour through a series of portraits of residents living near the stage. DE LAATSTE OVERWINNING (2004) reports on the annual horse races in Palio, Siena. The film is best described as the genealogy of a battle between the jockeys of ten city districts. The documentary has been screened internationally in cinemas.

Since 2000, John Appel has been working as a producer in the Appel & Honigmann partnership, together with filmmaker Hedy Honigmann. In addition, he works as an editor-in-chief at the Humanist Broadcasting Corporation, alongside Niek Koppen and Peter Delpeut.

John Appel is currently working on the documentary THE PLAYER. The film is inspired by memories of his father. He was a successful real estate agent in the bulb-growing region, became addicted to horse betting, and became a professional gambler. A subject that unites all of the filmmaker's favorite themes. In an interview in Het Parool, Appel says of his own work: “You shouldn't come to me for critical films. My films are about memory, melancholy, loneliness, and death.”



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