Sharp Objects

Volver a Volver(es)

The Sykora family are only four people out of millions of Venezuelans that have recently escaped their collapsing country. They land in the Czech Republic, the country where Grandpa Jan was born, but also a place utterly strange to them. In a matter of months their savings have almost gone and job seeking becomes a nightmare. Again, the dream of just having a normal life starts to vanish. Will the family manage not to crumble along the way?

4th of July on Quileute Tribal Lands(en)

In a strange twist of irony, Americans celebrate their independence on the sovereign lands of the Quileute People. An ambient soundscape coupled with the opening shot of an adjoining RV park work in unison to reveal an alien invasion on the shores of Quileute Tribal Lands.

Strijdmakker(nl)

VPRO icon Wim Brands died on April 4, 2016. He was known to the general public as a presenter of the VPRO Boeken program and also closer, with six collections of poetry to his name. This documentary about his life and work, built entirely from archive material, pays tribute to this television personality. A portrait in which attention is also paid to his complicated relationship with death. With a.o. Karl Ove Knausgård, David Sedaris, Ellen Deckwitz and Pieter Boskma. Brands' work merges with his rich inner life and that he chose death at the age of 56 casts a shadow over everything.

Spielball der Weltpolitik – Als Elten niederländisch wurde(de)

It is an unknown chapter of the German post-war history: On April 23rd, 1949, the kingdom of the Netherlands occupied German soil as a pledge for demanded war reparations. Part of the annexed territories was also the small municipality of Elten. While the people of Elten were initially afraid of the occupation, the time “with Holland” actually became a miracle of prosperity and economy about which many people from Elten still rave today. The occupation period ended with the largest organized smuggling in the history of the federal republic of Germany. The Documentary shows this in never before released 8 mm footage!

Aan ons den arbeid(en)

Documentary that shows the changing attitude towards immigrant labor in The Netherlands. The documentary follows three immigrants that arrived in Holland 30 years ago to work in a bakery.

Colonial Times(es)

Three centuries of Venezuela's history as a Spanish colony are considered from economic, political and social standpoints; evocations of the past are compared to the present. Based on the ideas and research of Federico Brito Figueroa, Alfredo A. Alfonso, Miguel A. Saignes, Josefina Jordan, and Thaelman Urgelles among others.

KOESNO, Jati Diri Soekarno(id)

Several historical facts were raised again to remember the story of the President who was born in the village of Peneleh, Surabaya, who is also Arek Suroboyo.

In the Shadow of the Serengeti(en)

A Maasai human rights lawyer fights to stop the evictions of his people from their homelands in Tanzania. On the outskirts of Serengeti National Park in East Africa, Maasai face eviction from their land to make way for international tourism and hunting grounds. Human rights lawyer Joseph Oleshangay campaigns for his community to remain on its homeland as it has done for generations. While he represents Maasai communities in court, Joseph also remains close to his traditions among the cattle at his rural home near the Ngorongoro Crater. Risking his life to gather evidence from recently depopulated villages, Joseph battles in court where he leads the fight to resist the evictions.

Etched in Bone(en)

Drawing on original footage from National Geographic, Etched in Bone explores the impact of one notorious bone theft by a member of the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. Hundred of bones were stolen and deposited in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, until it became known to Arnhem elders in the late 1990s. The return of the sacred artefacts was called for, resulting in a tense standoff between indigenous tribespeople and the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian.

Land der Bitterkeit und des Stolzes(de)

A polemic against Werner Herzog and the making of "Fitzcarraldo", exploring the question of the filmmaker's ethical and moral responsibility.

Timuti(iu)

In Inukjuak, an Inuit community in the Eastern Arctic, a baby boy has come into the world and they call him Timuti, a name that recurs across generations of his people, evoking other Timutis, alive and dead, who will nourish his spirit and shape his destiny.

Moving Ice(en)

Ice has always moved. When glaciation took hold some 34 million years ago, interconnected rivers of ice combined to produce the Earth's vast ice sheets. As temperatures slowly warmed glaciers developed a unique balancing act; advancing and retreating to calibrate their annual winter accumulation against summer melt. Sometimes calving colossal icebergs into the sea. A positive feedback loop that has regulated the movement of ice for millions of years.

Hacking at Leaves(en)

Hacking at Leaves documents artist and hazmat-suit aficionado Johannes Grenzfurthner as he attempts to come to terms with the United States' colonial past, Navajo tribal history, and the hacker movement. The story hones in on a small tinker space in Durango, Colorado, that made significant contributions to worldwide COVID relief efforts. But things go awry when Uncle Sam interferes with the film's production.

Reunion(fr)

Live footage from concentration camps after the liberation, and the complex transport and lodging of masses of prisoners of war and other deported people back to their home countries, at the end of World War II. A 45min 35mm print also exists (shown at Cinémathèque française in 2023).

Tinkebell - Who Killed the Blue Bird?(nl)

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?

War Photographer(en)

Documentary about war photographer James Nachtwey, considered by many the greatest war photographer ever.

Dawn of the Damned(fr)

This excellent feature-length documentary - the story of the imperialist colonization of Africa - is a film about death. Its most shocking sequences derive from the captured French film archives in Algeria containing - unbelievably - masses of French-shot documentary footage of their tortures, massacres and executions of Algerians. The real death of children, passers-by, resistance fighters, one after the other, becomes unbearable. Rather than be blatant propaganda, the film convinces entirely by its visual evidence, constituting an object lesson for revolutionary cinema.

Cao Bang, les soldats sacrifiés d'Indochine(fr)

The legacy of Els Borst(nl)

February 8, 2024 will mark ten years since Els Borst was murdered. This documentary highlights the remarkable career and life of the former Minister of Health, based on conversations with people who knew her well. It shows Borst's personal side and her impressive contribution to Dutch society. In addition to the successful cases, what were they encountering? How did Borst deal with political opposition? What did this do to her personally? The documentary provides a tangible image of Els Borst as a politician and a person, with attention to her legacy and the tragic end of her life.

The Great Post Road(id)

Road movie-style documentary about the Great Post Road (De Groote Postweg/Jalan Raya Pos). Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925), one of the most important Indonesian authors of recent decades, wrote an essay about the Great Post Road at the request of director Bernie IJdis. This thousand-kilometer road across Java was built at the beginning of the last century under the leadership of the Dutchman Daendels and cost the lives of thousands of Indonesian forced laborers. Because Toer, as a former political prisoner, is restricted in his freedom of movement, the filmmakers act as his eyes and ears during a trip along the Post Road. During the journey, parallels between Indonesia in the past and present slowly unfold. In addition, as the film progresses, the grimness of Toer's situation and the situation in his country becomes palpable.