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O’Hanlon’s Heroes wins ‘Zilveren Nipkowschijf’ award - Home

Wed, 09 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

The TV programme O’Hanlon’s Heroes won this year’s‘Zilveren Nipkowschijf’ award.

The award for best TV programme of The Netherlands is presented each year by a jury of TV critics.

The jury on O’Hanlon’s Heroes: “There is no better travel guide than this eccentric and well-read Englishman. O’Hanlon manages to cast new light on old topics, such as cannibalism, resulting in surprisingly beautiful television. Our discovered world is not fully discovered yet, as this series shows.”

O’Hanlon’s Heroes was made by Roel van Broekhoven and Maaik Krijgsman.

The Nipkow Foundation typically does not have nominations. The Nipkow jury met on Wednesday afternoon on May 9 2012. The award ceremony will take place on June 6 in ‘De Vorstin’ in Hilversum, The Netherlands.

Click here for more information about O'Hanlon's Heroes

I'm never Afraid: Winner of the Golden Gate Award in San Francisco - Home

Tue, 08 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Eight-year-old Mack's room is filled with all his motocross trophies. At the age of three,he won his first prize.

From that moment on, he was as big a motocross fan as his father and his now deceased grandfather - his hero.

Pushups and kickboxing are OK, but in the eyes of this "little motor-midget," motocross is the toughest sport there is. "Gymnastics is for sissies." Mack may be recovering from a broken leg from a fall from his motorbike, but he is busy planning his next competition. Scared? No way. Mack has been in worse predicaments than this before: he was born with a congenital heart condition and things looked really bad for him. "Actually I should have been dead. Doctors know a lot, but they don't know everything." His younger sister has health problems, too. "She's allergic to just about everything," he explains. If she eats the wrong thing, she can even go into anaphylactic shock. When his mother also became ill, things got really tough. But luckily Mack gets support from his grandpa in the hereafter - not just when he's competing, but also in class, like when he has to figure out a difficult calculation: "Then he tells me secretly in my ear." Now that this tough little guy has overcome so many obstacles, there's only one more thing on his mind: winning.

I'm never afraid wins Cinekid Kinderkast jury award and selected for 18th Slamdance (USA), Beeld & Geluid Awards, 55th BFI London Film Festival and Golden Calf Competition at 31th Dutch Film Festival.

click here to watch: I'm never afraid

Goldman Sachs and the decline of Greece - Current Affairs - Politics

Sun, 06 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Over the last ten years America’s nr. 1 investment bank Goldman Sachs has provided Greece with risky financial products to optically hide the country’s public debt.

This allowed Greece to live beyond its means and to get further and further into debt, ending in a (near-?)bankruptcy. Goldman Sachs earned a few hundred millions on the deal that made the position of Greece with the European Union untenable.

What happened in December 2000 and June 2001? Goldman Sachs gave the Greek Ministry of Finance tricks that brought the public debt closer to the 60 procent-of-gdp, the limit that EU has set in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. Both Goldman Sachs and the Greek government considered this to be ‘business as usual’. ‘Everyone did this back in those days’, is their reaction. Eurostat, EU’s statistics office in Brussels, was also informed about this and saw no objections to these forms of financial engineering. It worsened Athens’ case: the austerity measures that are hitting a population that hardly understands how the country got to this point. Director Alexander Oey visited New York, London and Athens to find out more about how this all could have happened and filmed the devastating consequences in present-day Greece.

New: Goldman Sachs and the decline of Greece - Home

Sun, 06 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Over the last ten years America’s nr. 1 investment bank Goldman Sachs has provided Greece with risky financial products to optically hide the country’s public debt

Win Win - Features

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:00:00 +0000

During the credit crunch a playful 'nobody' at a famous investment bank becomes a successful trader overnight. As he's gradually becoming estranged from himself, he still seems unable to lose...

Ivan is a true number cruncher and 'surfs the waves of the stock market' like a natural trader. He rakes in big profits for the bank. But all is not well. The new job gives Ivan sleepless nights. As Ivan rapidly becomes the most successful trader in town, he feels increasingly alienated from himself and the world around him. In spite of his unprecedented success Ivan has to get out. Before it's too late.

Against my will - Society- Culture

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Against My Will is a documentary about women in a women’s shelter in Pakistan. Relief centre Dastak was founded in 1990 by AGHS, a cooperation of lawyers offering free legal aid to women.

In recent years the number of ‘honour’ killings has increased. Not a day passes in Pakistan without a woman being murdered, mutilated or burned, only because her husband or family feels that the family honour has been defiled. A husband’s honour is easily defiled, for example by suspected infidelity, infertility, divorce or a woman’s running away from home. In many cases it’s not even reported.

The authorities don’t respond and turn a blind eye to the fact that women are murdered in the name of honour. According to reports of the Human Rights Commission Pakistan and the Women Action Forum, an estimated 1000 ‘honour’ killings are committed every year.

The documentary is about three women who have taken refuge in relief centre Dastak: Anita was married off to a man of 70 when she was only 14 and decided to walk out on him after seven years. Razia, a 34-year old woman, got burned by her husband several years ago and came to the relief centre after a long period of wandering. Kubra got abused by her husband and doesn’t want to go back to him. All three women received death threats. They had defiled the honour of their families.

But Kubra’s noble deed became her undoing. Eventually she was killed to save the family honour.

Backlight: Mondragon's Miracle - Current Affairs - Politics

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Backlight is staying in the Basque village of Mondragón, where the majority of the population works in cooperatives.

All employees are also co-owners and together they decide on the company policy. Even in today’s harsh economic climate, this approach is successful. Mondragón manufacturehigh-grade technological products and is now the seventh largest company in Spain, a multinational with branches all over the world.

"Developing a social model on a cooperative basis, in the post-war capitalist era and in a hostile environment: that is a miracle."

While the global crisis grimly continues to wreak havoc all around us and criticisms are heaped on the neoliberal model, the UN declared 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives. Boards, authorities and economists are keen to establish a model that functions properly and is above all internationally competitive. Mondragón is always used as an example and is flooded with visitors from all over the world. The American government is currently facing the choice whether to privatise General Motors again after salvaging it in 2008. Its future is causing heated debate. One idea is not to float the company but convert it into a cooperative. The Mondragón model might serve as a starting point, so GM personnel flew out to have a look.

Backlight investigates the cooperative model in times of crisis. “1 employee = 1 vote”, and in this way the fridge factory workers democratically decided to hand in 8% of their wages last year in order to cushion the financial blow together. But how firmly is this model anchored in society? Are notions like solidarity, participation and self-support generally accepted? Backlight follows some of the key people from all levels of local society: the police officer, the bank director, the mayor, the priest, the conveyor worker. They all show the sweet and the sour side of the model from their own perspective.
Welcome to the alternative economic model of the 21st century: Mondragón Cooperative.

The Beagle, On the future of species (8x 52') - Home

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:00:00 +0000

The voyage of the HMS Beagle has been described as the most important journey ever made. During his travels, Charles Darwin gathered information and knowledge that would drastically change the way we look at the world

With his book "On the Origin of Species" (1859) Darwin would be the first to explain that life on earth is not created by God, but rather developed by evolution.

To celebrate Charles Darwin's 200th birth year and the 150th anniversary of his publication of "On the Origin of Species", Dutch broadcasting company VPRO in association with Belgian broadcasting company CANVAS has produced a unique television series plus feature film called Beagle, on the future of species. Life on earth is under continual change. Is there reason to worry about the future? Can science offer us sufficient answers to some of our most compelling questions? Are we leaving behind an inhabitable world for future generations?

View an episode, click here

1. One small step for man…

In September 2009 the clipper ‘Stad Amsterdam’ set sail to circumnavigate the earth, repeating the most important journey ever made. Far moreimportant than man’s voyage to the moon. It is a voyage that took the young naturalist Charles Darwin five years 179 years ago, and the passengers of the clipper eight months. Darwin’s travels changed our ideas of time, space, chance, sex and nature. What a privilege to be able to do them all over again! All the beauty and profusion in a world full of wondrous forms.
Darwin’s granddaughter, Sarah Darwin, and British author Redmond O’Hanlon will be repeating this journey. To them, it is a chance of several lifetimes.

And now? Now we will look at the state the world is in - and what possible consequences this could have for our future. With this in mind different scientists and artists have been invited aboard at different stages of the journey.

2. Low life on the ladder of God

The first leg of the journey goes from England to Tenerife and Cape Verde, and takes us to Salvador de Bahia in Brazil. A spectacular beginning to the voyage of a lifetime.

This episode describes the journey from Rio to the southeast of South America, Puerto Madryn. In Rio the travelers are confronted with Brazil’s horrifying history of slavery, a history that has left its traces in the country even today.

But the ship sails on - to relive Darwin’s discovery of the gigantic fossil mammals of South America. The end of this journey brings us to a unique place; one of the oceans delivery rooms.

3. The last frontier

We all love fish - but we are running the risk of seeing them go extinct. Could extending the fishing limits to the center of every ocean solve the problem? The Yagan Indians were killed off by good intentions: with the missionaries came lethal diseases from the civilized world. And then the genocidal European settlers arrived. We visit the last full-blooded Yagan Indian in Tierra del Fuego, before sailing on through the notorious waters of Cape Horn, where the Beagle was very nearly shipwrecked.

4. The final countdown

We say goodbye to one of the few remaining glaciers on earth to sail north. On board are two environmental activists: Douglas Tompkins and his wife Kristine McDivitt. Having sold their clothing companies and become multimillionaires, they have dedicated themselves entirely to environmental activism and land conservation. Their love for the Chilean landscape led them to buy a large piece of land and sustain it as a nature reserve: the Pumalin National Park. Humans create their own problems - but is humanity smart enough to avert its self-inflicted disasters…

The Andes produce deep thought about deep time and deep space. The snow and the glaciers of the Andes also provide the source of all the waters in the lowlands. The glaciers are melting, and the water supplies are dwindling. What does a city like Lima have to do to protect itself from these effects of climate change?

5. The paradise of competition

We’re off again, sailing for months along the coasts of South America. Now we’re on our way to The Galapagos. A Mecca for every naturalist. An island of dreams made of reason. Darwin’s reason – where the foundations for his greatest discovery were laid. A teenage dream come true for Redmond O’Hanlon.

Next, O’Hanlon leaves the clipper briefly to fly to Indonesia - in search of the story of Darwin’s greatest rival - the man who technically takes priority for the theory of evolution by natural selection - Alfred Russell Wallace. The journey is made in order to find the most desirable of all the birds of paradise - because it is the only one that Wallace discovered: the Standard Wing.

On the island of Tahiti the clipper is rejoined, in time for the great crossing of the Pacific Ocean. Astonishingly, our planet is composed of 70% water. This water is more important to us than anyone could imagine. We humans have much more in common with other life forms than Wallace or Darwin could have thought… if we take care of the oceans, we take care of ourselves…

6. Do It Yourself survival

Australia - the dry continent where Charles Darwin found nothing and where he stayed only briefly. How could he have foreseen that the population there would start to experiment with new ways of agriculture, unhindered by traditions left behind in England?

The Red Continent is beautiful, but shows no mercy. Drought, heat, isolation and disease put extreme demands on the survival strategies of man and animal. How does man cope with the harsh environment? Can geo-engineering prevent his extinction? Is his Do It Yourself survival kit good enough to save him?

7. Adapt or Die!

The Clipper is still anchored in Australia – the plagued and exhausted continent. We take a close look at the solutions that science has to offer to prevent mass extinctions. Australia is the country of the future - especially when it comes to genetic modification. But who are we to try to manage evolution? Are we adapting or are we just delaying our imminent extinction?

8. The ruins of progress

After two-and-a-half weeks at sea the clipper arrives in Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean, a few hundred kilometers east of Madagascar. Mauritius remained uninhabited until Dutch seafarers settled there in 1589.

Mauritius and the Dodo - that strange flightless bird, the first animal to become extinct due to the actions of modern humans - are inextricably linked. Since Darwin’s time many animals have disappeared from the face of the earth because of us, but the Dodo became the symbol of the often destructive presence of mankind.

70% percent of the waste in the oceans consists of plastic. Together with restoring the fish stocks, cleaning up our oceans will be the greatest challenge.

We end our journey who may have a direct ancestry that stretches back 150 000 years. Today their culture is artificially kept alive. Is it right to preserve them in a state of so-called primitiveness purely for our pleasure?

Letter from my child ( 6x30') - Home

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Six documentaries focusing on families from six countries all over the world.

Countries where families have to bear the consequences of armed conflict, violence or crime, natural and economic disaster, human rights' violations and social exclusion. Letter From My Child tries to give a human face to front-page news. Personal stories translate major news events into human tragedies. Children are the future, although their opinion is hardly ever heard. This series gives these children a voice.

View an episode click here

In Europe - History

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 22:00:00 +0000

In Europe is a prestigious 35-part documentary series by film director Roel van Broekhoven about the European 20th century. The series is based on the bestselling book of the same name by internationally-acclaimed historian Geert Mak.

In Europe is an eyewitness account of the past century, about people who experienced history firsthand or have been left with the legacy of their forefathers. Crews have traveled all over the continent visiting both the landmarks and the backwaters of European history, from Victorian London to the quiet rural villages of Stalinist Russia, from Berlin in its roaring twenties to the silent graves of Franquist Spain.
More than a lesson in history, In Europe is about the continuing relevance of history to individual lives. Victims, culprits, politicians, dreamers, opportunists and of course that great multitude of people. In Europe gives them all a face.

In Europe has been a major success in the Netherlands, resulting in the highest average market share for a documentary series in television history. In the Netherlands, the television series is supplemented with a weekly radio broadcast focusing on the episodes and an extensive website replete with an iTunes number one podcast, additional footage and a plethora of background information.

Silent Snow - Society- Culture

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Staggering documentary film in which a young Inuit travels across three continents, starting off from the North Pole, to see how chemical pollution affects humans and the environment.

Using splendid nature footage, ‘Gouden Kalf’ winner Jan van den Berg reveals both the beauty and vulnerability of our planet. A silentmurderer is spreading death and destruction among the Inuit community in Greenland. Here, on the paradisiac white plains of the North Pole, chemical waste products from all over the world wind up virtually unnoticed. Ocean currents and snow storms carry pesticides, such as DDT, up north to the homeland of the Inuit, causing illness and premature death among humans and animals. The documentary project SilentSnow investigates, together with those most affected, what appears to be the endemic pollution of the entire global ecosystem. Co-director Pipaluk Knudsen-Ostermann, a young Inuit, travels to Tanzania, India and Costa Rica to find out where the pollution stems from, and how it can be solved. The film stresses the pollution’s consequences for the Arctic regions, but also points at the root causes and associated ethical dilemmas, such as the use of DDT to fight malaria in Africa.

Wings over the World - History

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:00:00 +0000

A fascinating series on 20th century aviation.

Episodes:

1. High Above the Wall The story of rapid aviation achievement in China, a country racked by revolution and change.

2. Bigger and Bolder The history of the Boeing, a leader in the airline industry after the Second World War

3. A tale of two giants Donald Douglas rose to prominence as a great aircraft designer and builder, designer James S. McDonnell struggled in the background. With the onset of World War II, McDonnell made his first foothold in aviation, working for Douglas on the DC3.

4. The Lockheed Legend The history of Lockheed Aircraft Manufacturing

5. Behind locked doors Andre Tupolev established Russian aviation for the love of his motherland and developed some of the finest of Soviet heavy aircraft.

6. Legacy of a legend builder As a young boy, Roy Chadwick watches the works of Alliot Verden Roe as he develops the famous World War I Avro 500 Series with keen interest. Chadwick's career reaches its pinnacle with the design of Avro Lancaster, vital to Great Britain's survival in World War II.

7. Comet into the 21st Century After a decade of producing nothing but war machines, Great Britain's aircraft industry built the first passenger jet airliner: the de Havilland Comet. Its momentous first flight in 1949 attains only short-lived fame. After many crashes, the plane's airworthiness certificate is withdrawn and the project scrapped.

8. A tale of two German Giants From the ashes of World War II, Willy Messerschmidt and Claude Dornier rose to become the mainstay of European aviation.

9. Igor Sikorsky: a man and his dream After pioneering Russian aviation and creating many world firsts, Sikorsky fled the Bolsheviks, finally arriving in New York as a penniless immigrant. He pioneered transatlantic flights with Charles Lindbergh and fought frustration and failure to fulfil his childhood dreams of vertical flight.

10. Fokker: a dream fulfilled Dutch aviator Anthony Fokker founded his first company in Germany where his designs were destined for the front lines of World War I. Later, at incredible personal risk, he smuggled aircraft components into Holland, where he established the Fokker Aircraft Company. In America he also established the largest aircraft company in the world at that time. The story does not end with Fokker's death in 1939. With the outbreak of war, Fokker aircraft were to fight in defence of Holland, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Ironically, they also served with the RAF and Luftwaffe.

11. In defence of neutrality The history of Swedish aviation is coloured by a commitment to neutrality. The Swedish aircraft industry developed in the face of potential German aggression and subsequent Soviet threat.

12. Higher, further, faster It has been over 30 years since the age of supersonic transport was first heralded by André Turcat's flight of the Concord. This exciting story chronicles the Anglo-French co-operation that resulted in a remarkable aircraft.

13. The Dassault dream Inspired by the Wright brothers, French pioneers made France the hub of early world aviation. The Dassault Dream is a story of determination and achievement that placed the Dassault family concern at the very forefront of aviation.

14. Leonardo's Legacy The history of Italian aviation is told through the eyes of the Caproni family, aviators who have helped establish many world records.

15. Into the rising sun Ninomiya took the first serious step in Japan's dream of flight, but was beaten into the air by the Wright brothers in 1903. After initially progressing along separate paths, the Japanese Army and Navy later combined their aviation industries, forming one of the most formidable air forces of World War II.

16. Project cancelled A story of dashed hopes and unfulfilled dreams. The history of early flight is dotted with unfinished projects, cancelled for political, financial and technical reasons.

17. Into the next millennium It has been almost a century since the Wright brothers' memorable first attempt and subsequent success with powered, controlled and sustained flight. The 20th century has seen man develop his capabilities beyond his wildest dreams. All the great pioneers are now gone, but their dreams live on in the inspiration of others.

One Fine Day - Society- Culture