Hi! I’m Eldar, a documentary filmmaker based in Amsterdam. Ever since I saw my first camera as a kid, I’ve wanted to make videos with it. It started with a Hi8 camera, filming my friends in the 1990s, and became more professional after I graduated from the Dutch Film and Television Academy in 2002. I studied film production, which gave me a good understanding of the entire filmmaking process, but the business side of filmmaking was never really my thing. I just want to create.

Over the years, I’ve boiled filmmaking down to its essentials: a camera and a computer. Because in the end, filmmaking for me is about capturing magical moments. The suprise that nobody saw coming, someone achieving something they’ve worked towards their entire life, or see it slipping away in an instant. You can freeze time, preserve a memory, make people relive what you experienced, and share it with the world. That’s the beauty of filmmaking for me. It has rules, but you’re completely free to make your own and find a way of telling a story that feels right to you.

What I enjoy most is the personal aspect. Becoming part of a team or someone’s world, making a genuine connection and filming it from the inside out. For 12 years, I travelled around the world with Alistair Overeem, capturing the inside world of fighting at the highest level of the sport, from Pride and K-1 to the UFC. For another 11 years, I did the same with Martin Garrix, documenting his journey from a young Dutch DJ to becoming one of the biggest names in electronic music. But it can also be a student team building a prototype for an international competition, or a surfer dude going with the flow and somehow always landing on his feet.

I wanted to be free from companies, subsidies, networks and politics. So I chose to work directly with the people I was filming and share everything on YouTube and Vimeo. I wanted the films to be accessible 24/7, anywhere in the world, for free — not behind a paywall and not controlled by someone else. For the people I filmed, it was a way to create a legacy, and they did. For me, it meant creative freedom.

Everything I’ve made over the past 20 years can be found on this website, and now I’m looking for the next adventure. If you have an interesting story, a great adventure, or simply something you think needs to be shared, hit me up. 

Truth is often stranger than fiction. Capturing it is the thrill of a lifetime.