Gregor Meerman

Stories about young Ukrainian dancers and their hasty flight to the Netherlands. You see their new life as refugees. The former conservatory in The Hague is a shelter for them where they collect their lives and find refuge in their profession: dance. The formation of a new ballet company, The United Ukrainian Ballet, is an important foothold in winning back their lives. They find comfort in each other and close friendships develop. In addition, there is the great love for ballet, for the dancers the best way to express themselves.

Four mothers explain how their sons ended up in trouble with the law because they fell in with the wrong crowd, experienced trauma or were intimidated by a gang. The offenses are minor, and their involvement was not always proven—sometimes they were only witnesses to a crime. But once Amsterdam’s Top400 crime prevention program has them in its sights, things just get worse for them.

The performing arts are hit hard by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Opera, too, faces a serious challenge: How can they make the enormous effort demanded of them by Le Nozze di Figaro worthwhile without having an audience? With two years of preparation time and performances that have long sold out, Mozart’s opera Le Nozze di Figaro is an ambitious international production by the National Opera. But when the opera house is forced to close due to COVID-19, everyone’s biggest fear becomes reality. What is an opera without an audience? What can they do to make sure all the hard work has not been for nothing? In the spirit of Le nozze di Figaro and in the style of the opera buffa (comic opera), Crazy Days demonstrates how important it is to create things of beauty, precisely in these insane pandemic times.

Documentary about the writer Thomas Verbogt and the creation of his latest work. The film shows how Verbogt takes a radical experience from his earliest childhood as the starting point for a novel. Drawn animations, combined with filmed scenes, depict how the writer's imagination sprouts from a literary character.

폴라로이드 필름이 생산중지된다는 소식을 듣고 떠나는 아티스트 스테파니 슈나이더 (Stefanie Schneider)의 사진여행 이야기

In 2016, the Noordbrabants Museum in the Dutch city of Den Bosch held a special exhibition devoted to the work of Hieronymus Bosch, who died 500 years ago. This late-medieval artist lived his entire life in the city, causing uproar with his fantastical and utterly unique paintings in which hell and the devil always played a prominent role.

In a portrait of his New York relatives, one of them a Holocaust survivor and the other her daughter, filmmaker Marco Niemeijer gradually unfolds the harrowing, smothering effects of the war trauma across generations.

Soccer player Mbark Boussoufa faces some hard dilemma's. He plays in Russia, while his family is in The Netherlands and Morocco.

Frequent perpetrator Tony ends up in the Pieter Baan Center after yet another violent robbery. For seven weeks, a procession of behavioral researchers passes him by. They must ultimately come to a unanimous conclusion and then advise the judge: whether or not accountable; tbs or not. Psychiatrist: "What is the worst outcome for you?" Tony: "Tbs with compulsory care." The Pieter Baan Center is a detention center with the special task of investigating persons suspected of a serious crime. It is an independent investigation commissioned by the Ministry of Justice. In a seven-week process, the suspect's personality, the possible presence of a disorder and / or a mental illness and whether it can be linked to the crime are examined. Is there a chance of recurrence?

At the end of 2003 the main building of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum has closed, in the words of managing director Ronald de Leeuw, becoming 'the most conceivable art museum'. The Spanish architects Cruz and Ortiz signed for the big design; in 2008 the modernized museum would open with a pioneering museum concept. Moviemaker Hoogendijk followed the first four years of what is called the biggest Dutch cultural operation in history.

앞을 보지 못하는 ‘루벤’. 후천적으로 시력을 잃고 짐승처럼 난폭해진 그를 위해 어머니는 책을 읽어주는 사람을 고용하지만 다들 오래가지 못해 그만둔다. 새로운 낭독자로 온 ‘마리’가 첫만남에서부터 루벤을 제압한다. 마리는 어릴 적 학대로 얼굴과 온몸에 가득한 흉측한 상처와 남들과 다른 모습에 사람들의 시선을 피해 다니지만 볼 수 없는 루벤 앞에서만은 자신을 드러낸다. 루벤은 [눈의 여왕]을 읽어주는 마리의 기품 있는 목소리와 단호한 행동에 관심을 갖고, 마리를 아주 아름다운 모습일 거라 상상하며 사랑에 빠진다. 누군가에게 사랑 받는 것이 처음인 마리 역시 낯선 이 감정이 사랑임을 깨닫고 마음을 연다. 하지만 루벤이 수술로 눈을 치료할 수 있게 되면서 마리는 자신을 보고 실망할 것이 두려워 그의 곁을 떠난다. 이제 모든 것을 볼 수 있게 된 루벤은 사라진 마리를 찾아 방황하는데…

The Rey Gitano Circus in Guatemala is a genuine family business. After their father’s death, the five Lopez brothers run the operation with their mother. However, the widow has resolutely taken over at the helm, which makes it hard for the sons. But her strict management style and frugality bear fruit: the circus grows, the audiences come flocking in. The brothers all play different roles during the show: Christiaan has his tigers and Paco does a trapeze act; Jim is a clown and Jerry entertains the crowd as the ringmaster. The more business flourishes, the more tensions rise among the brothers. They all dream of starting their own circuses, being their own bosses, but none of them has yet succeeded. One ill-fated day, Paco leaves the circus, abandoning his family. But the appeal of circus life appears too strong, and blood turns out to be thicker than water.

More than thirty years ago, Louis van Gasteren made the documentary BEGRIJPT U NU WAAROM IK HUIL? about a therapeutic LSD session that professor Jan Bastiaans did with a traumatised ex-prisoner of German concentration camps. The patient died in late 2000 at the age of 81. He left a wife and three children. Poignant conversations with the widow and youngest son, and excerpts from letters from the other two children reveal that a concentration camp syndrome can also inflict deep wounds in those who have not personally experienced it.

The haunting experiences of Dutch U.N. peacekeepers are woven together by the powerful influence music has had on their endurance, survival, and memories of war. This documentary is filled with close-up interviews, scrapbook photographs, video clips, news footage, letters read aloud, and other recollections, as different generations of Dutch peacekeeping soldiers recount the trauma of bloodshed from Korea to more recent events in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Their trusting, and often disturbing, personal revelations resound most poignantly when they talk about the single pieces of music that each found powerful enough to keep insanity at bay.

The Santa Semana, the week before Easter, is a major celebration in Malaga, Spain. Dozens of processions move through the streets with beautiful floats. During this annual ritual, the Cofradía Jesus El Rico y Maria Santissima Del Amor Brotherhood has the right on Holy Wednesday to give one of three prisoners chosen in advance his freedom. The film shows the three prisoners speculate about their release, while the brotherhood decorates the floats. (filmcommission.nl)