Rats and Slaves

Nowadays hacking is a well known phenomenon. Almost weekly we see news items about networks that are attacked. The trading of access to ones personal computer and webcam is less widely known, but the results can affect a computer user deeply personal. The simplicity of these hacks and the scale of it are disturbing. Are you already the slave of a RAT, or will you become one very soon?

script & director Anthony van der Meer | in co-production with VPRO Martien Vlietman & Karin Vermeulen

That Which Is To Come Is Just A Promise

The minority co-production formerly known as ‘the Tuvalu project’ premieres during the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, Cannes May 2019.

In the course of a long, slow take over Funafuti, both drought and floods appear in a constant uninterrupted rhythm.  The state of flux between both type of events is reflected in the places and actions of the inhabitants making the island’s extremes seem familiar: the air is riven with waiting and suspension.

The island of Funafuti, in the archipelago of Tuvalu, for some years now has become the stage for a unique phenomenon.  Due to the unnatural warming of the sea, saltwater seeps into the subsoil bubbling up through the porous terrain provoking floods which put the future of life on this island at risk.

directors Anna Maria Martena & Roberto Taroni for Flatform, Milano

in co-production with Dugong Films (Italy) Giulia Achilli & Blueskin Films (New-Zealand) Catherine Fitzgerald

supported by the Netherlands Film Fund

Stones Have Laws

The inlands of Suriname are inhabited by descendants of African people who, in the 17th and 18th century, were shipped over the Atlantic Ocean to work on the plantations as slaves. Many of them were able to free themselves and built communities inland.

Like their African ancestors, the inlanders have a special relationship to their environment. Non-human entities are also a part of their communities, including the spirits of their ancestors. The villagers ask the local forest spirits for permission to cut a tree, for example. They show respect to big rocks and crawly termite mounds. If rain fails to appear, they pray to the god of water.

With this film, the artists aim to visualise the radical democracy in which spirits, ancestors and non-human things have agency.

co-direction Lonnie van Brummelen & Siebren de Haan & Tolin Alexander | script based on conversations with the Maroon community of Suriname  | a co-production with IDEAL films Darek Szai Szendel & VRIZA Kerstin Winking | supported by the Netherlands Film Fund, Fonds 21 & Amsterdam Fund for the Arts | this film is made in the context of de Verbeelding (the Imagination) artists and film programme of the Netherlands Film Fund & Mondriaan Fund

Sheep Hero

Shepherd Stijn has a romantic world view, but his idealism clashes with the harsh reality of having to be a modern entrepreneur. In this poignant and cinematic documentary we come close to Stijn and his family in their quest to keep the tradition of sheep herding alive. Will his struggle pay off or is he forced to go with the flock?

script, director & director of photography Ton van Zantvoort | line producer Annerose Langeveld | advisory editors Gys Zevenbergen, Barbara Hin & Joost Seelen |music Roy Bemelmans | sound design Jeroen Goeijers

a co-production by seriousFilm, NEWTON film & Omroep Brabant | commissioning editor Omroep Brabant Lout Donders | this film was supported by the Dutch Cultural Media Fund, Brabantse Beauties, Omroep Brabant, KRO-NCRV & Netherlands Film Fund | Dutch cinema distribution Windmill Film Distribution | international sales Films Transit International

world premiere @ IDFA 2018 (in Dutch competition)

Wildlife

DEVELOPMENT ONLY

An animated short in an installation: about the playful human urge for a connection to nature.

script & director Charlotte van Otterloo | supported by the City of Rotterdam Arts & Culture

Finity Calling

stop-motion animated short (15 minutes)

An empty room with five people sitting at a table that seats six. Their withered bodies adorned with lush fabrics and jewelry, they spend eternity playing with their food. A charged silence fills the air. When the fragile equilibrium in the group is broken by the boy’s constant pestering, the results are explosive.

script & director Jasper Kuipers
a co-production with Walking the Dog (Brussels), and the Netherlands Institute for Animation Film
supported by the Netherlands Film Fund, Creative Industries Fund, and the Flemish Audiovisual Fund
in co-operation with Pedri Animation
made possible with support of Cinecrowd.com

the Principal Wife

The story is about a little girl which one day realizes that her mother has left, and the girl doesn’t understand how that happened. She only remembers bits and pieces. ‘How come my mother has left, leaving me behind?’

Marijke in a first interview, November 23, 2015

When Marijke was eight years old her mother left the family to join a sect, in which her mother commited terrible crimes

In co-production with KRO-NCRV | supported by the Netherlands Media Fund

director Hester Overmars | creative advisor  Joost Seelen

This documentary premiered at DOC feed Eindhoven on Thursday February 22, 2018, and will be broadcasted by the KRO-NCRV in May 2018.

From the Snow-Covered Hill

an animated short by Wijnand Driessen | Matty Jorissen, duration 14 mins

Will Hill (12) is bullyed by his fellow studens and his teacher, the only friendship he has is with a bird named Darwin, as the bullying gets worse and worse Will tries to escape, his flee leads to death

a co-production with Walking the Dog, Brussels
supported the Flemish Audiovisual Fund, the Netherlands Film Fund, co-funded with Cinecrowd.com, and the Tax Shelter programme of the Belgian Governement

This animated short had its Belgian premiere on Sunday February 11, during the Anima Film Festival in Brussels

Garden of Life

When 82 year old Leo, the filmmaker’s father-in-law, starts to lose control over his life due to Alzheimer’s, he desperately tries to maintain a grip on the small world of his back garden. Every day he inspects all changes, fingers leaves, and removes everything that should make way for new growth. But the garden is running wild. The seasons go by. ‘Friends are like the sunshine in the garden of life’. In August, Leo can still translate the slogan that adorns his garden. Friends’, he tries one last time in March, ‘are the… sunshine… in the dawn of… the morning.’

script | director Marco Niemeijer – post-production produced by seriousFilm

supported by the VEVAM director’s fund, and the Netherlands Film Fund

Dutch cinematic release by Periscoop Film is planned for March 2018