Oorlog in de Oost - propaganda en het Nederlandse bioscoopjournaal

What did Dutch cinema audiences get to see from 1946 to 1949 about the war being fought in Indonesia? What did the weekly Polygoon newsreel – at that time the only news source with moving pictures – show?

And, at least as interesting, what did the general public in the Netherlands not get to see? What films were prohibited by the censors (still working in those days)? What footage was kept out of the public eye? Was there a place for Indonesian films?

Historian Gerda Jansen Hendriks answers these questions using an extensive selection of film clips and shows how the Dutch government deliberately used film as propaganda to influence public opinion.

Government films

The clips are taken from films including the portmanteau films Brigade flitsen Korps Mariniers (NL 1946/47, collection of the Netherlands Institute of Military History) and Oud en Nieuw in Indonesië (NL 1947, Eye collection).

Gerda Jansen Hendriks is a director with public broadcaster with NTR’s history department; she is the originator of the popular Dutch TV show Andere Tijden. She obtained her doctorate in films made by the Dutch government about the Dutch East Indies during the period 1912-1962. Together with Hans Goedkoop, she also recently made the two-part film 'De Indische rekening'.