Niet mijn Moskou
Video letter in which the Dutch-Russian documentary maker Masha Novikova reports on the radical changes in Russia and Moscow during the month she recently spent there.
Akrams bruiloft
Life from Akram's perspective. He no longer has a lower body, he bravely crosses through Sanaa, Yemen. Then his big dream comes true: he gets married.
Sad Film
The maker of Sad Film takes part in the demonstrations against the military dictatorship in Myanmar, in a mask.
To protect the safety of the anonymous filmmaker, this film cannot be viewed online.
De buurtkoelkasten van New York
During the lockdown, dozens of neighborhood refrigerators suddenly appeared in the streets of New York. Neighbors and shopkeepers put in what they have left over. It symbolizes the resilience of New Yorkers.
Debriefing Drone-operator
After 20 years, the West withdraws troops from Afghanistan, where the first drone war was waged. What does such a remote war look like?
Winter in Moskou
Marina Litvinovich visits protesters imprisoned after the arrest of Alexei Navalny and reports online.
Brief aan de koning
Sixty years after the assassination, Lumumba's daughter Juliana addresses the Belgian king, will Belgium return the tooth to Congo?
Cartoonist op de Vlucht
After far-right President Bolsonaro took office in January, Leonardo, a political cartoonist for Extra, a popular newspaper in Brazil, was fired for 30 years.
Portlands Brandend Hart
Portland's Black Lives Matter protest began peacefully, but after the arrival of federal troops, the city spiraled into violence in the months that followed.
Fadi neemt de Weg terug
Fadi hoped to be reunited with his wife and young children within a year of his flight from Syria, but due to the increasingly strict regulations in Germany, this is not yet in sight.
De Stem van Idlib
Twenty-year-old Abu Rakan fights against the Assad regime in Idlib.
God geeft geen Geld
It was the heaviest non-nuclear explosion ever, destroying large parts of Beirut on August 4, 2020. Now, more than eight months later, the affected neighborhoods lie in ruins unchanged.
De Beschermengel van Edward Snowden
When Edward Snowden had to flee after his shocking revelations about the US intelligence services in 2013, he found an unexpected refuge: with Asian asylum seekers in Hong Kong.
Balling
Bei Ling fears that dictatorial China will soon suffocate democratic Taiwan. Strolling through the streets of Tapei, the poet and publisher longs to return to his hometown of Beijng, where he is no longer welcome.
Fijn Weekend in Wuhan
Xu lives in a city that the whole world knows: Wuhan. The city was the epicenter of the corona outbreak. After three months of lockdown, she was allowed to return to work.
Paradijs in Vlammen
Filmmakers Kel O'Neill and Eline Jongsma live with their two young children near Butte County, California. In November 2018, the largest fire in recent American history raged here.
Leven zonder Water
At the beginning of 2018, the city council of Cape Town, South Africa, came up with alarming news. We are approaching the day when the city of four million inhabitants 'falls dry'.
Frozen Zoo
Scientists Jeanne Loring and Oliver Ryder are investigating how to use stem cell technology to bring 'new animals' to life from animal skin cells that were frozen long ago.
Brief aan de President
A new generation has had it with the old rulers in Uganda. The wildly popular politician and musician Bobi Wine is in opposition at the risk of his own life.
Trapped in the City of a Thousand Mountains
In the Chinese city of Chongqing, rappers are trying to figure out what is and isn't possible now that new censorship has been issued that prohibits any form of improvisation.
De Roze Riksja
In the metropolis of Lahore, pink rickshaws move nimbly through the total chaos of traffic. They are part of the Pink Rickshaw, founded by and for women, intended to let them earn their own money and thereby become more independent.
De Stille Epidemie
Fentanyl has caused a silent epidemic in the United States in recent years. Coroner Lakshmi Kode Sammarco sees how the rise in drug deaths from the painkiller has touched her community's heart.
Coronakoerier in New York
Bahar Baharlu (28) from New York of Iranian descent volunteers to cycle through the empty streets of New York to bring groceries to people in corona quarantine.
Brief aan de paus
A group of deaf people of all ages traveled to the Vatican in late February 2019. They have all been students of the Provolo Institute for deaf children in Verona, run by nuns and priests.
De onvoltooide Ierse opstand
Recently, a bomb exploded in Londonderry for the first time in years. Directors Oisín Kearney and Loretta van der Horst follow 21-year-old activist Jude Macrory, who was lifted from his bed during the making of the film and held on suspicion of complicity in the attack.
Angelo en de bommen
Sardinian Angelo Cremone discovers that the bombs used by Saudi Arabia in Yemen were made in his own village. He goes to battle against the weapons factory on his own.
Terug naar af
In 2013, after four years of crisis, two disillusioned sisters return from Athens to their homeland near Kalamata to become olive farmers. Their newly built existence is now wavering again.
Palestijnse komedie
Theater maker Alaa Shehada returns to Jenin and helps his old friend, an unemployed actor and in a deep depression, pick up the thread again. "Why cry when you can joke?"
Nieuwe grenzen, oude wonden
Documentary filmmaker Oisin Kearney grew up in a town on the border of Northern Ireland with Ireland. With the threat of a new hard border due to Brexit, there is fear of a return of violence.
Bekijk de documentaire op NPO Start hier
In De Thuiskomst wil ik het achtste gebod ‘Gij zult niet stelen’ actualiseren, urgentie geven en toepassen op mijn persoonlijk bestaan als documentairemaker. In mijn vak als documentairemaker heb ik tussen 1989 en 2023, volgens eigen berekening, 714.298 km gevlogen. Dat is 17,8 keer rondom de aarde . En waarschijnlijk ben ik nog wat vergeten.
Nu het belang van de ecologische voetafdruk gemeengoed is geworden en we ons afvragen hoe we ons leven in relatie tot de planeet anders kunnen inrichten, moet ik me afvragen of mijn werk deze ecologische voetafdruk waard is geweest. En of het vanaf nu anders kan. Want als documentairemaker ‘steel’ je immers ook – soms van de mensen bij wie je per slot van rekening langsgaat om iets op te halen, maar altijd van de aarde.
Dat impliceert dat ik voor het maken van deze film niet zelf wil ‘stelen’, geen ecologische voetafdruk wil achterlaten. Geen vliegtuigen, geen hotels, geen restaurants. Daarom heb ik het principe van recycling van beeldmateriaal als uitgangspunt genomen voor de vertelstructuur van de gehele documentaire. Bestaand materiaal wordt geordend tot een beeldessay.
De keuze voor het specifieke te recyclen materiaal is ook van belang: het betreft beeldmateriaal dat overwegend is gemaakt door mensen ter plaatse – er is dus geen kerosine verbruikt om dit materiaal te verkrijgen. De uitleg van deze werkwijze maakt vanzelfsprekend deel uit van de documentaire.
Het beeldmateriaal dat ik wil hergebruiken, is grotendeels afkomstig uit ‘videobrieven’ die ik de afgelopen tien jaar heb geproduceerd (eerst voor De Correspondent, later voor HUMAN).* Deze videobrieven geven me nu de mogelijkheid om het onderwerp en uitgangspunt – het gebod ‘Gij zult niet stelen’ – ook te vertalen naar het maakproces van dit documentaire-essay.
The Homecoming
In The Homecoming, I aim to update the eighth commandment—"Thou shalt not steal"—giving it relevance and urgency while applying it to my personal existence as a documentary filmmaker. Between 1989 and 2023, in my profession as a documentary filmmaker, I have flown a total of 714,298 kilometers, according to my own calculations. That amounts to 17.8 times around the Earth. And I have probably forgotten a few flights.
Now that the importance of our ecological footprint has become common knowledge and we are questioning how to reshape our lives in relation to the planet, I must ask myself whether my work has been worth this ecological cost. And whether things can be done differently from now on. Because as a documentary maker, you "steal" as well—sometimes from the people you visit to collect material, but always from the Earth.
This means that in making this film, I do not want to "steal"; I do not want to leave an ecological footprint. No airplanes, no hotels, no restaurants. That is why I have taken the principle of recycling footage as the foundation for the narrative structure of the entire documentary. Existing material is arranged into a visual essay.
The choice of which material to recycle is also crucial: the footage has largely been created by people on location—meaning no kerosene was burned to obtain it. Explaining this approach is, naturally, an integral part of the documentary.
The footage I intend to reuse comes mostly from "video letters" I have produced over the past ten years (initially for De Correspondent, later for HUMAN). These video letters now allow me to extend the subject and premise—the commandment "Thou shalt not steal"—to the very process of making this documentary essay.
VPRO Diogenes 1995 Rwanda (fragment):
I started working for the renowned TV documentary program Diogenes in 1995. The first short documentary I did was a portrait of the most notorious gang leader/narco trafficker Beato Salu, in a favela in Rio de Janeiro. Beato Salu was killed three months later. He must have known it was coming; I always think that was the only reason he agreed to talk to me.
With Beato Salu, 1995
1996: with Sir Wilfred Thesiger, the last of the great explorers, director of photography Stef Tijdink, and sound engineer Wib Nelisse.
With Beppe Grillo, Italy 2017, interpreter and director Christine Pawlata and Benny Jansen, sound engineer.
With legendary investor Jim Rogers
In 2013, I wrote the series "SPEECHES" for VPRO. The idea was to present famous speeches and find stories about the impact they still have on today's lives. In 2015, I directed three episodes: on Lech Walesa; on Salman Rushdie and on the emotional speech of Rosaria Schifani, at the funeral of her husband Vito, murdered by the mafia in the attack on Giovanni Falcone in 1992.
with Lech Walesa
Rosaria Schifani
