A documentary by Kris Devéria
This documentary was created as part of the course Visual Culture, taught by Jeroen Boom in the BA Arts & Culture Studies at Radboud University.
Starting in October 2019, Dutch farmers launched major protests against government proposals to drastically reduce nitrogen emissions. Farmers and their supporters often displayed various symbols of dissent and support that became common during this time. This video essay explores these and other visual aspects of the protests, particularly in the context of postmodernism and post-truth.
This 15-minute video features a guiding voice-over laid out on top of archival footage, accompanied by moody music to set the tone. After a short introduction that sets the tone, the background of the nitrogen crisis is explained. From here the film looks at three specific visual elements before digging deeper into how they relate to post-modernist thought, as well as exploring post-truth in contemporary Dutch society.
Having never done something like this before it was not entirely surprising in hindsight that the creative process took quite some time. However, it was largely a labour of love. I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to take a topic that had intrigued me for years and to create something around it that was heavily inspired by the work of documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis. The video essay was made in early 2025 for the course Visual Culture as part of my pre-master’s in Creative Industries, supervised by Jeroen Boom to whom I must give many thanks. Prior to this study programme however, I did a very different study programme called Rural Development & Innovation (BSc) at Van Hall Larenstein, then based in the town of Wageningen. Through these studies and various jobs and projects afterwards I got to understand some things about the ways that agriculture and nature intersect in the world. This film is hopefully the first of many that I intend to work on to offer often unheard perspectives and stories about some of the most fundamental aspects of human civilisation.
Culture Weekly 