Rosan Boersma

The Sea Stares at Us from Afar

Huelva, Spain, an isolated region lost in time. The grass, the sand and the sky are the same that those foreigners saw in the spring of 1895, when they crossed the sea from a distant country to mark the unspoiled terrain and extract its wealth, when the tower was new, when people could climb to the top of the highest dune and imagine that the city of Tartessos was still there, in the distance, almost invisible in the morning brume.

Forget Me Not

‘De Verrekijker’ primary school in Katwijk provides education for some 150 children from the local reception centre for refugees. The inspired teachers’ ultimate challenge is to offer these children a safe haven and make their school days as ordinary as possible. At first glance, De Verrekijker looks like a normal Dutch primary school. However, the boys and girls are children of rejected asylum seekers. Headmaster Toon and the teachers do all they can to give them the best education. Yet each morning they worry if any pupil has been forced to leave the country. After a series of deportations it becomes increasingly difficult to provide the children with a safe haven. The situation escalates when a group of Syrian boys fleeing war arrive at the school.

Life, Love & HIV

HIV has been a chronic disease since the 1990s; it is no longer lethal. Still, the social stigma and the taboo the affliction is under persist. This is also experienced by two women in Amsterdam and Groningen. They are now brave enough to say they are HIV positive, despite all unshakable prejudices against women with HIV. This moving documentary shows what it is like to live with the dreaded disease in present-day society.