Thomas den Drijver

Hardcore Never Dies

17-year-old Michael dreams of a future as a pianist, but his music education is not going smoothly. In his search for inspiration, he receives help from an unexpected source: his brother Danny introduces him to the emerging Rotterdam “gabber” music scene. Michael is drawn into a world of hard beats, brotherhood and drugs. When Danny's drug business reaches international proportions, the brothers must fight for their lives.

Waves of War

Daan van Citters and Joenoes Polnaija retrace the footsteps of their grandfathers in Indonesia. They both fought for the Netherlands against Indonesian independence: Daan’s grandfather went voluntarily from the Netherlands, Joenoes’s as a Moluccan soldier in the Dutch colonial army, KNIL. Their poignant journey forces them to ask themselves some difficult questions about guilt, shame and transgenerational transmission.

Porcelain

The lives of Anna, Paul and their little son Thomas seem perfect from the outside. Paul has a well-paid job, Anna has a home studio where she works with porcelain and Thomas is an angelic child. However, when Thomas bites one of his friends at school, the cracks of a context that is anything but perfect begin to surface.

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.