Canceled Documentary About Cancel Culture: My Participation and the Droste Effect

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My participation

In August 2022 I was approached if I wanted to be interviewed for a documentary series about cancel culture, which was made for BNNVARA. The maker was the renowned documentary maker Kees Schaap and the interviewer Fidan Ekiz. Of course I participated and the conversation with Fidan in the presence of Kees Schaap and two technicians was pleasant and lasted about 1 hour.

I was told that the documentary series would be on television at BNNVARA in the spring of 2023. My reaction was that I couldn’t imagine that this would actually happen. That BNNVARA would broadcast such a documentary. My own experience since spring 2021 has also been that I was no longer invited or questioned anywhere in the traditional media. Except with Mischa Blok in a program/podcast about cancelling.

And yes

I hadn’t heard about the documentary series until yesterday, until I read about it in De Telegraaf: BNNVARA did not want to broadcast the series. The arguments I read in the article were far-fetched, because BNNVARA itself was also included in the program, in a way that it did not like. But if it hadn’t been for that reason, they would have found another one.

Jan Slagter (Omroep Max) has taken care of the documentary, which is why the series can be viewed via NPO Start from Thursday. (My interview is apparently in Episode 3).

I wonder

What is already striking is that the documentary only appears on NPO Start, but is not programmed via one of the three public channels. If you see what does appear on it and you know the stature of the makers and the topicality of the subject, you would expect it to also be broadcast on NPO2.

But not only that. What I am very curious about is whether Kees and Fidan can come and talk about their series at OP1 in the coming days. A talk show where people regularly come by to talk about programs or documentaries they have made.

The spicy thing is that Omroep Max has ensured that the documentary can at least still be seen via NPO Start. But determining who will or will not be in OP1 is a much more complex situation. Although the presentation duos come from different broadcasters (Fidan Ekiz and Sven Kockelmann are there on behalf of Omroep Max), the (final) editing is always the same and BNNVARA plays an important role in this.

Let’s see how OP1 handles this problem. Whether Kees and Fidan can come and talk about their documentary. Or that they are also canceled there.

One thing I know for sure: they are allowed to visit Mischa Blok….