BEING AD VISSER Ad Visser is known for many generations in the Netherlands as the eccentric Mr. Toppop, a top hit show on public television. However, the documentary 'Being Ad Visser' zooms in on an underexposed side of Visser. He turns out to be a resourceful artist who - driven by curiosity and unstoppable creativity - has been writing music and composing songs all his life. All this leads to large artistic projects. 'Being Ad Visser' follows Ad Visser during the realization of his art project about artists Serge Gainsbourg and Salvador Dalí and writer Giacomo Casanova. In the meantime, we also meet Visser's wife, artist Melanie Visser, who candidly and lovingly tells how she and Visser have been coping with each other for more than 53 years and have stimulated each other. We follow Ad Visser to the recording studio of music producer Joos van Leeuwen, with whom he creates his songs, and see how soprano Francis van Broekhuizen sings a part for Visser's latest project. When asked where Visser's creativity comes from, musician Ralph Rousseau answers: 'His creativity must come from a vulnerable part of himself, because that's where creativity comes from. Creativity never comes out of big, bombastic states." Visser turns out to be a man of paradoxes who, on the one hand, declares that his creations arise entirely from freedom and intuition, but who at the same time wants to have a grip on everything and completely direct his life.
