Daan and Mees arrive at Traumburg hoping to leave something behind. They drift through four days at the festival where moments of euphoria, intimacy, discomfort and introspection continuously fold into one another. As the weekend unfolds, they oscillate between collective ecstasy and private disintegration.

Together with Rutger Nijkamp, I made a documentary about, and for the organic small-scale festival called Traumburg. Moving between festival film and psychological portrait, Hymn to Dionysos looks beyond the spectacle of the festival towards the more ambiguous experience underneath: the strange intimacy of temporarily losing yourself among thousands of others. Showing the film at Traumburg itself created a kind of mirror: the audience was watching a film about the festival while still in the middle of experiencing it themselves.

Screened at Traumburg 2026
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Cast: Daan van de Geest & Mees Bergshoeff
Directed by Sebastiaan Verbeeten & Rutger Nijkamp
Duration: 27 minutes

2026

Recently divorced, Sandra is left yearning for answers after the man she had an affair with leaves her hanging. Marked by pain and wrath, she engineers a public event, using it to stage an artistic performance as an ultimatum. What starts as an idea escalates into a bold and uncomfortable experiment. The film explores desire when it is no longer restrained, and observes the consequences of turning private longing into a public act.

Screenings:
Brooklyn Center for Theater Research (NYC)
Nightclub 101 Manhattan (NYC)
Pakhuis de Zwijger (Amsterdam)

Created by van Acker Art Gallery (Sebastiaan Verbeeten & Brant Peije Teunis)
Duration: 23 minutes

2026

A young couple tries to make sense of the existential void they face after the suicide of a close friend. From the cocoon of their relationship they travel to foreign places in the search for answers. Sebastiaan films every moment of their adventure while his girlfriend Pieta starts to distrust the camera. Their search exposes the deep, unspoken differences between them, forcing them to confront not only their relationship but the fragile sense of purpose they’ve been chasing.

Happy Together is a coming-of-age story about me, my camera and our relationship with my former girlfriend Pieta. In the film I explore the desire for self-portraiture, and introduce a shift in our dynamic by recording our lives. The process of documentation is incorporated in the editing process, creating a product of multiple iterations over time, morphing and shifting in its objectives.

The film arose out of my longstanding project of self-archival. My mode of working is gonzo, creating a highly personal subjective world which I explore with my viewer. The creation process is part of the result, creating a film that searches for itself within itself. In doing so it becomes an intimate representation of filmmaking as a craft and practice, flirting with questions of ethics, desire, and purpose.

Selected for:
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025
Dallas Independent Film Festival 2026 
Nominated for Best Documentary Feature 


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Directed and Edited by Sebastiaan Verbeeten
Music by Mazi Jarvis
Duration: 54 minutes

2024

Film students take part in a 48-hour film challenge with a film titled Defragmentation. Their different ideas about the film leads to a crisis 

Directed and Edited by Sebastiaan Verbeeten
Duration: 10 minutes
2021