Sylvia Baan

Barlebas

An experimental musical period drama about the witchhunts in 1595 in the south of the Netherlands. The film depicts the last days of the life of the young woman Heylken.

A Way to B

When he sees members of the audience crying while he’s performing his dance, Xavi is a bit disappointed. If they’re crying because they’re moved by his dancing as an art form, that’s fine. But if it’s out of pity because he’s in a wheelchair, they can “fuck off.” A similar attitude can be detected in Jos de Putter and Clara van Gool’s portrait of the Catalan dance collective Liant la Troca, whose members include people with a physical disability. One by one, they spotlight some of these intriguing personalities.

L'amour La mort

Every love, no matter how happy, sooner or later ends unhappily; either due to loss, due to death, or due to a broken bond. These are all sides of the same medal. Why do we love others if love can hurt us so much? Wouldn’t it be safer not to love? In this documentary, several people who have been profoundly confronted with love and death in their lives, provide glimpses of the enigma of love, based on their personal stories. On Freud’s famous couch, they are questioned about their experiences. Their stories are interwoven with timeless works from the history of painting and music. When words are not adequate, there is art and music.

Sheltered

The relationship between the humans and animals at a large animal shelter in the Netherlands is one of extremes. On the one hand, this is a place for new opportunities, where both parties can find unconditional love. On the other, the problem cases lead to despair among their caregivers, who have to face the limitations of the system in which they work.

Here We Move Here We Groove

In an as stirring as hopeful music story Dj Robert Soko, who came to fame with his Balkan Beats, embraces musical influences from newcomers in multicultural Europe.

Stop Filming Us

Based on the struggle of young people in Goma (Northeastern Congo) against the prevailing Western reporting about war and misery, Stop Filming Us investigates how these Western stereotypes are the result of a skewed balance of power. Stop Filming Us creates a cinematic dialogue between Western perceptions and the Congolese experience of reality. While the Congolese perspective becomes increasingly clearer in the film, questions arise about the perspective of the film itself; is a white director able to make a film about the new Congolese image or is it primarily a story created by his own Western perspective?

Freek

Freek de Jonge intends to stage one last magnificent show, to once again draw in the crowd. The performance of his life, in which he confronts various painful events, descending to the depths of his soul. This way he hopes to rekindle the drive of thirty years ago: has he done things right, will he be able to make up for the times he failed as a man and as an artist?

Camino, a Feature-length Selfie

"Everything in me said I had to do it." Martin de Vries decides, without any preparation worth mentioning, to walk the Camino, the famous pilgrims’ way to Santiago de Compostela. From Le Puy-en-Velay in central France to north-west Spain; a journey of 1,600 kilometres, taking almost 70 days. He films himself while walking – his feet, his shadow, the path, the fields and woods – and tries to get to the bottom of why he set out on this adventure.

Yvette

Director Simonka de Jong follows sixteen-year-old Yvette from Nieuwegein in the last eighteen months of her eventful secondary school years. On the face of it, Yvette is a tough girl: she wears Lonsdale clothes, hangs around the schoolyard smoking and indifferent, and argues with her classmates, who are unable to place and simply will not accept her racism. Yvette clearly does not know what to do with herself and appears to have two faces. She can look like a hardcore Lonsdale girl, but with her hair loose and in the intimacy of the living room she is just a shy adolescent girl with her own dreams and desires.

Arna's Children

Juliano Mer Khamis' documentary on his mother, Arna, an activist against the Israeli occupation who founded an alternative education system for Palestinian children.