JEANETTE GROENENDAAL
  • Overview - CV
  • Director
    • DraMAYAma
    • Ik weet wie ik ben
    • REFORMATION
    • Dutch Cocaine Factory
  • Artist-Collaborations
  • Commissioned
  • Advisor/Astrologer
DUTCH COCAINE FACTORY
​Jeanette Groenendaal
Scenario, Camera, Director and Producer

Docu-tective, Documentary | 55 min | Netherlands | 2007
Through footage derived from a 16 cam self-surveillance videodiary we are swept into the pro-paranoia world view of Dutch Cocaine Factory. Champions league cocaine consumer Arend, a lawyer and a drugs scientist unveil a well-kept secret of the past, the Dutch Cocaine Factory. Until World War II, the Netherlands were the largest producer of quality cocaine in the world. An attempt to fair trade? What if cocaine production prices would not extend the price of coffee? Who surveys the surveillance? Arend seeks 'Solutions', while the decadent party feasts on (we visit the Wasteland and Erwin Olafs parties in Amsterdam). The power of the images, the structure of the film and the implausibility of the events are reminiscent of fiction, but performance artist Jeanette Groenendaal's documentary debut tells the truth and nothing but the truth.

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IDFA DAILY 2007
At the heart of Jeanette Groenendaal’s Dutch Cocaine Factory resides Arend ter Horst, a 63-year-old cocaine addict who betrays all the signs of acute paranoia. It becomes very clear early on in the film that this paranoia is far from misplaced.
‘I was shocked to read [transcripts of] the telephone calls that I had made to Arend,’ explains Groenendaal. ‘I always thought fear of telephone taps was just paranoid, and that I had nothing to hide, but when I read back everything, that was when I decided to make this film.’ 

So Groenendaal commences a documentary journey with Arend that reveals the terrifying degree of surveillance – or ‘digital chasing’, as a Dutch lawyer refers to it – that takes place within the Netherlands. ‘I took my camera along because I wanted to find out what was going on; what was right and wrong. And was I a suspect as well?’ En route, she tells the story of the original Dutch cocaine factory which, in the 1920s, imported up to 2 million pounds (900 tons) of cocoa leaves per year to fire an extremely profitable – and perfectly legal – industry. Cocaine wine was delivered to the Pope and the American president, who commented on the ‘excellent mood’ it created. Eventually the US, unable to break into the lucrative cocaine trade, introduced a prohibition whose global influence became endemic. 

The character of Arend fills the film. The CCTV footage of the police raid on his house at the beginning is genuinely shocking. Later in the film, he calls ‘cut!’; an instruction taken on board in a filmic sense by Groenendaal, until she realises that it’s the cocaine that he wants cut, not the camera. The footage of his withdrawal from its use is disturbing, but he reveals a deliciously dry humour when assessing the substitute substances deployed to bulk out the coke. ‘It’s no longer the real thing,’ he observes.

‘I think he is a visionary,’ comments Groenendaal. ‘In India, a person on the edge of society who has been using drugs for forty years would be a holy man. In our past in Holland, we have given space to these people to grow and experiment. Now, within this new, controlled society, we are suddenly criminalising them.’ 
Nick Cunningham
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2007 Magic Hour Award
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2007 Official Selection
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2007 Official Selection
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2007 Official Selection
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2007 Official Selection
Prices/select: IDFA 2007 Premiere Paradocs, Transvizualia Polish Documentary channel, Somnio Filmfestival Bergen, PAFID Patagonia De Balie Amsterdam, Theater Kikker preview ’t Hoogt Utrecht, Focus Film theater Arnhem, Vera Zienema Groningen. Plaza Futura Eindhoven, Planet Doc Review Warsaw, Filmhuis Lumière Maastricht, Cinekarree Aken, Filmhuis Den Haag, Seoul Independent Documentary Film & video Festival Korea, Illuseum Amsterdam, Planet Doc Review Warsaw, De Brakke Grond Amsterdam, De Poorterij Zaltbommel, Filmhuis Lumen Delft, HOTDOCS DOC SHOP Toronto- Canada, TEK filmfestival Rome, Verkadefabriek Den Bosch, Film Museum Amsterdam, DOCUFEST Kosovo, Ketelhuis Amsterdam, Bogota Colombia, Dockanema festival Maputo Mozambique, Kassel Film en documentary festival, “Under Influence” Kunsthaus Dresden Germany, Nationale Wetenschapsdag Leiden, “All about Freedom” Gdansk, Women’s Art Festival Le Pont Gallery Aleppo Syria, “Strikt Vertrouwelijk” Leiden Scheltema complex, De Nieuwe Anita Amsterdam, Dasha Cinema Amsterdam, Artisterium New Art Café Tbilisi Georgie, Villa Garigula Georgie, Patagonia experimental filmfestival South America.
IDFA trailer Dutch Cocaine factory

A film by Jeanette Groenendaal
Produced by G-netwerk


​With 
Arend ter Horst

criminal lawyer 
Mr. Leon van Kleef

Criminology, drug researcher, Bonger Institute,UvA
Dr.Ton Nabben 

Criminal law, Erasmus University 
Dr. Damián Zaitch

Addiction treatment consultant 
Don Schothorst 

Camera
Jeanette Groenendaal 

Additional Camera
Martin Hansen 
Zoot Derks
Robin Noorda
Jeroen Weeda
Omar Wilson 

Arend ter Horst
Original Intellex camera 16 cameras x  3 years
24/7 selfsurveillance 

Off line Edit 
Jeanette Groenendaal
Zoot Derks 
Martin Hansen
Jan Dries Groenendijk

Online Edit 
Zoot Derks 

Sound 
Zoot Derks,
Martin Hansen 
Jeanette Groenendaal

Audio post production 
Warning Studios 

Sound design 
Jan Dries Groenendijk

​Music
Glamour Twins, 20th Century boy
Björn Warning, Moral Fashion 

Aura-photography
Arend ter Horst 

Stills 
Tropenmuseum Amsterdam Bianca Schrouwen

Authorised video material 
GNN Alex Jones DJI AT5 NOS

Guest appearances
Diver 1  Ilse Diver 2  Teus 
Jaguardriver Ben
Perp Noud Verhaave 
Dealer Zoot 
Singer  Gunnar Smit
Bass player  Karin Boukema
Tango Dancer Margreet Sweerts 

Participants of ZootenGenant Installations 
Erwin Olaf  “Fuque les Balles” 

Particpants of ZootandGenant 
Installation Wasteland

Script Advices
Frouke Fokkema
Femke Baljet 
Binger Institute 

Story Board 

Zoot Derks 

Subtitles 
Zoot 
Derks 

Translation 
Alison Fisher

Colour Correction 
Jeroen Weeda 

Techincal support
Jeroen Weeda
Zoot Derks 
Björn Warning 

Sponsors

ZootenGenant
Vault Productions 
Erwin Olaf Studios

Locations
Luchtmacht, Air Force Show 
DJI Dienst Justitiële Inrichtingen 
Bonger Criminology Institute 
Tropenmuseum
Hortus Botanicus 
St Nicholas Church
Speedo 
Rotterdamse haven 
Sluiswachter IJmuiden 
haven Koninklijke Hoogovens Ijmuiden
“van Gent Hallen” Het Oosten 
Academia de Tango, Amsterdam 
Gil en Moti Gallery
Sugar Factory 
Power Zone 
De Zwaai 
Solutions

Special thanks to
Ritsaert ten Cate

-A DasArts Final-

This film was financially supported by

the Netherlands Film Fund
Parool.tv
Storyboard by Zoot Derks
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  • Overview - CV
  • Director
    • DraMAYAma
    • Ik weet wie ik ben
    • REFORMATION
    • Dutch Cocaine Factory
  • Artist-Collaborations
  • Commissioned
  • Advisor/Astrologer