Vechtershart

A biographical documentary of musician/author Kinky Friedman.

In the travel series Through the heart of China photographer Ruben Terlou and director Maaik Krijgsman make their way from the far North to the Southern tip of China: from the dried-out steppes of inner Mongolia to the tropical coast of Macau-straight through the heart of China indeed.

A six-part series in which photographer Ruben Terlou travels from Shanghai, the most westernized part of China, to the much more traditional Tibetan city of Shangri-La. Through the stories of people he meets along the 6,300-kilometre river, Ruben discovers the real China, forty years after Mao’s death.

Forensic psychiatrist Fokke Augustinus makes an unexpected career change when he inherits his father's mansion in Groningen where he becomes involved with a criminal organization with a marijuana plantation on his father's land.

This is a documentary about the Dutch magician Hans Klok. It's a story about his quest to make his dream come true in the magician capital of the world: Las Vegas.

Isabelle Rombauts is unexpectedly appointed CEO of the family business Rombauts Pharma, an important player on the international pharmaceutical market. She soon encounters the consequences of serious mismanagement by her father and brother. And she is faced with a devilish dilemma: should she follow her own conscience? Or the interests of her influential family?

When Eva’s mother unexpectedly dies, the life of Eva turns out to be built on secrets and lies. The fear of losing her mind, just like her father who has been living in a mental facility for many years, becomes more and more of a threat, propelling Eva on a quest into her past to face her demons.

For more than thirty years, the coffee shop has been the international model of tolerance and lenience in the Netherlands. Nobody is penalized here for using soft drugs. But the production nederwiet (Dutch skunk) is still prohibited. The result is an equally hilarious and worrisome cat-and-mouse game played by growers, coffee shop owners, organised crime, police and judges at the backdoor of coffee shops. Filmmakers Maaik Krijgsman and Hans Pool decide to start growing marijuana at home. Their ill-fated enterprise is entertaining to watch. But the stories of the hemp grower, the seller of growing equipment and the coffee shop owner they do business with are sobering. The stricter police policy forces up the price, which paradoxically only fuels the interest of heavy criminals. The idealist hippie era is over. Nederwiet shows all sides of the nederwiet business: from police raids of home growers and visits to large-scale nurseries to a musician who tries to end his weed addiction.

Looking for an Icon examines the process by which photos become icons, revealing that once a photo is published, social forces are at work beyond the photographer's control. The film focuses on four World Press Photo winners, including Eddie Adams's 1968 photo of the public execution of a Viet Cong prisoner, an anonymous photographer's last image of Salvador Allende during the 1973 coup, Charlie Cole's 1989 photo of a lone student confronting tanks in Tiananmen Square, and David Turnley's 1991 photo of a grieving soldier during the first Gulf War.

Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) left us a small oeuvre of only 36 paintings. Internationally, the power of his work is now more profound than ever. Blockbuster exhibitions, the novel and movie ‘Girl with a pearl earring’ caught a broad audience. Millions are touched by his work. What do we see in Vermeer that makes him so contemporary? The dignity of his painted ladies, the cinematic and photographic character of his images, the psychological impact, the serenity or apparent glimpse in our own everyday life? Influential contemporary artists, photographers and opinion leaders unravel the extraordinary and mysterious impact of this 17th century master in our day and age.

In the four-part documentary series STAAL we follow steel factory Tata Steel and its neighbors in changing times. After a century of steel production in the dunes of Wijk aan Zee, the residents of the IJmond are diametrically opposed to each other. For many IJmond residents, the factory is their life and their bread. They see the smoking colossus in the dunes as a self-evident part of the landscape.