Sluizer Speaks

The Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer died on September 20 of this year. This time he didn’t rise from the dead – during a previous arterial bleeding, he was wrongfully declared dead and “almost shoved into the fridge.” A typical Sluizer statement, as this distinctive portrait shows, in which the quirky artist looks back on his rich life, his sources of inspiration, great loves, legendary encounters with the greats, and above all his films: the leitmotif in his life. Sluizer (Spoorloos, The Vanishing, Dark Blood) turns out to be a vessel full of beautiful, strong stories. We hear about how he once got into a fight with Klaus Kinski, and how he single-handedly patched up a crashed plane on set with gaffer tape during the tragic filming of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. Or about the time that secret services rang his doorbell since he had made recordings of JFK 10 days before his death. But also about his connection with Spielberg and being ignored in his own country. “I am an immigrant in the Dutch film industry,” he says without a doubt. This is the life story of Sluizer in his own words, supported by excerpts from his work and the filming of Dark Blood, his final triumph on the film festival circuit. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)