De gebedsgenezer

In 1997 filmmaker, journalist, discerning observer and commercial director of the first two editions of IDFA Jan Vrijman died. From the early sixties Vrijman was active as a documentary filmmaker. In the mid-eighties he stopped making films, however, to concentrate on producing them. DE GEBEDSGENEZER (1965) is a portrait of 'healer' Johan Maasbach, which Vrijman made as an episode in a series of reports on striking aspects of the Dutch society for VARA television. But this broadcaster thought Maasbach's portrait was too insinuating and did not televise the film. Later, Vrijman mixed the remaining footage with some other film portraits, to come out with a cinema documentary, entitled OP DE BODEM VAN DE HEMEL. In cinéma verité style Vrijman reveals how seemingly commonsensical Dutchmen are sent into a kind of religious ecstasy by Maasbach.