He worked for the Dutch Polygoon newsreel company in Haarlem, Netherlands in 1949.

In 1983 Van Gasteren won the Dutch Film Critics Award for best documentary as well as the Golden Calf for best picture for Hans: Het Leven Voor De Dood (Hans, Life Before Death).

[1] Van Gasteren was a visiting professor in the United States at UCLA and Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University.

Van Gasteren lived in Amsterdam and was married to Joke Meerman.

[2] During the Second World War Van Gasteren was convicted to four years for killing Walter Oettinger, a German Jew in hiding.