Although much has been written about him, little is actually known about Johannes Vermeer, painter of iconic images and international favorites like The Milkmaid and The Girl with a Pearl Earring. "Close to Vermeer" follows Gregor Weber, globally-renowned Vermeer expert and flamboyant curator at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam working on his last big dream before his retirement: setting up the largest Vermeer exhibition ever. Weber joins a number of Vermeer enthusiasts and experts using the latest techniques in search of what makes a Vermeer truly Vermeer.

Suzanne Raes has been working as an independent filmmaker for more than 20 years. Her early films a.o. The Houses of Hristina (2007), The Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Island (2009), and The Successor of Kakiemon (2012) premiered at IDFA and won several awards at international film festivals. Her film Come Closer about Boudewijn de Groot received the IDFA Music Audience Award in 2015. For her film about the Rotterdam social service, Quid pro quo (2015) Raes won a Golden Calf, the most important film award in the Netherlands. More recent the co-production Ganz, How I Lost My Beetle had a successful theatrical release and has been broadcasted in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.

Ilja Roomans is producer for Docmakers since 2019. Ilja has produced documentaries since 2003, she was responsible for more than 60 creative documentaries and documentary series, with experience in both Dutch productions and international co-productions. Recent films are Close to Vermeer by Suzanne Raes, Master of Light by Rosa Ruth Boesten and Turn Your Body to the Sun by Aliona van der Horst. In 2022 she participated in the EAVE Producers Workshop.

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