The son of a wealthy family, Tuenissen loved to make home movies, and made the first Dutch film with sound (notably, a critical failure). When the Germans occupied Holland, he began making films for them, too.
Soon, he became head of the Dutch Nazi Party’s Film Department, overseeing films on everything from the genetic superiority of Dutch cows to celebrations of Nazi leadership, later insisting he was just trying to build the local film industry.
THE PROPAGANDIST includes conversations with Tuenissen (who was briefly imprisoned after the war) and fellow filmmakers, some of whom more successfully erased traces of their Nazi past. Bouwman interweaves home movies, newsreels, historic and propaganda films, alongside interviews with two contemporary historians.
In an age of rising authoritarianism, THE PROPAGANDIST is an engrossing study of how even those serving the most brutal regimes minimize their contributions and try to justify their actions.