Justus van den Elsen (’90) is a filmmaker from Tilburg that works on a wide range of film productions; from documentary to fiction and from commercial to television. Justus was selected for the Next Talent Program. The partners of the Next trajectory are very curious about the development of this true storyteller.
After a very un-successful time as a student, together with his companion Johannes van Beeck he founded film production company Dirty Paws Media in 2013, to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a film director. By setting up their own projects, learning by trial and error, and pushing on he taught himself the craft.
Nowadays he directs commercial projects for national and international clients like Bavaria, de Efteling, DSM and Akzo Nobel. His short folk-horror film ‘the Glowing’ (2019) has been selected to eight international film festivals, and this summer his history-centered documentary series ‘de Zuiderwaterlinie’ was broadcasted on Omroep Brabant. His debut-documentary ‘Dieptevrees’ (working title), funded by the national media fund, is in post-production and will be premiering in 2020. Currently he is working on the documentary ‘Without Borders’, which focusses on the international work that the Firefighters Without Borders do in third-world countries.
His autonomous work can be characterized as dreamlike and melancholic, with a strong sense of adventures and unknown worlds. Another reoccurring tone is a subtle and light absurdist sense of humor.