Tamara Vuurmans

Thirty years ago, Diego Gutiérrez moved to the Netherlands. For his latest film, he returned to Mexico, seeking answers to lingering questions. How do you cope with loneliness and grief? How do you connect with nature? Is an easier life in a less dangerous country also a better life?

Artist Katinka Simonse, alias Tinkebell, is a controversial, very mediagenic phenomenon. In her universe there is no distinction between life, art and activism; Tinkebell is her own work of art. Everything she encounters on her life path can become part of her story. Filmmaker Judith de Leeuw was given access to all images about Tinkebell, including her entire private archive. She thus constructed an archive film about how as a human being, living on the ruins of the past, you can be a character in your own story. What is the price you can afford if you continue to believe at any cost?

On the outskirts of Den Helder lies De Nollen, an inland dune area where nature, sculpture, and painting merge into a truly immersive experience. It is the life's work of artist Rudi van de Wint. He died unexpectedly in 2006. His sons, Ruud and Gijs, carried on his dream, out of love for their father and for De Nollen. But plans for a Rudi van de Wint museum in the area led to cracks in their idyllic existence.

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"Stuff Everywhere" is a personal documentary about the connection between people and their stuff. Things are handy, they make life easier and we think they will bring us joy. But they invade our houses, the streets, the sea and our minds. In how we think about ourselves, about the economy and about cubicle space. Stuff Everywhere is a poetical film filled with questions, numbers and searching words.

At the request of Dutch documentary filmmaker Judith de Leeuw, the Dutch prominent theatre director Ruut Weissman is directing a solo performance about the power relationship between a teacher and a student, between an actress and a director. Both Ruut Weissman and actress Harriët Stroet have personal experiences with this theme. The documentary shows how the mutual relationships between director, documentary filmmaker and actress are brought into sharp focus during rehearsals and how the events on and off stage are always intertwined.

The film DAYMOHK tells the story of Chechen dance star and choreographer Ramzan Ahmadov, whose dance group Daymohk has found refuge with Chechnya’s current president Kadyrov. Momentarily postponing the extinction of this age-old folk dance. But the sacrifice this move takes, is great: in an attempt to save his country’s tradition, Ramzan collaborates with the authorities and sacrifices what he loves the most.

Ifeoma Fafunwa, Mrs. F., takes up the challenge of staging her play HEAR WORD! about the abuse of women in male-dominated Makoko, a slum with houses on stilts in the lagoon of Lagos. Besides the original cast of Nigeria’s most acclaimed actresses, Ifeoma will cast young women in Makoko who are subject to the same fate as many of the women in Nigeria. Ifeoma connects with them through her personal struggle with her background. Can Ifeoma set a transformation in motion in the heart of the fastest growing city in the world that breaks with the silence culture in Nigeria?

When backpackers come to a small village in rural Laos, their arrival divides the local population and disrupts the relationship between two childhood friends....

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'Welkom Op De Hemelse Aarde' is an observational and disturbing documentary film - A journey along the fringes of Dutch society, where existence is sometimes hellish, but just as often wondrous and beautiful. Between half-demolished buildings, in deserted, misty streets, or in a living room brimming with musical instruments, the protagonists philosophize about their existence.

In Den Helder, there was The Hood: a carport where the Antillean community gathered, which the municipality decided to demolish. Director Judith de Leeuw was interested in recreating their time there, but she suffered backlash from the local Antillean community, whom questioned her position and intentions in wanting to make a documentary about this topic and its community.