
05 Apr 2024

The Making of a Japanese
Intimately following 1st and 6th graders at a public elementary school in Tokyo, we observe kids learning the traits necessary to become part of Japanese society.
The Platoschool was founded in Amsterdam in 1983, a primary school for parents who wanted more than just math and language for their children. The founders of the Platoschool had great ideals, ideals that the parents of documentary maker Yara Hannema fell in love with. The children would grow into special people with a high level of consciousness, but the teachers ran wild in their strictness and discipline. There was beating and abuse of authority. The school was discredited and had to close its doors in 2002.
05 Apr 2024
Intimately following 1st and 6th graders at a public elementary school in Tokyo, we observe kids learning the traits necessary to become part of Japanese society.
15 Jul 2023
Preschool to Prison is a compelling examination of how the United States public school system is built and operated like prisons. Zero-tolerance policies are used to justify suspension and arrests that set up a pathway to send children of color and children with special needs from school to prison. Children are being suspended, restrained, dragged, physically manhandled, and subsequently arrested for minor offenses such as throwing candy on a school bus. These personal accounts from people affected by the school-to-prison pipeline give riveting tales about the generational impact on society.
09 Sep 2003
British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.
07 Jan 2016
In 1917, French artist Marcel Duchamp declared everyday objects as art. A provocative act that sparked a heated, still topical discussion around the question: what is art? Since then, that question has been asked time and time again. To the artist and to the viewer. If everything is possible and everything is allowed, how do you remember what art is? Director Ditteke Mensink spent two years at De Ateliers: the breeding ground for top talent in the visual arts. Her stay ended in a harsh confrontation with herself, the young artists and modern visual arts.
31 Mar 1954
A short documentary about the behaviour of Japanese primary school students.
29 Nov 2004
Nocturnal life in the partly deserted dock area of Amsterdam. Director Marjoleine Boonstra encounters lone wolves, leading secluded lives in makeshift shelters, and people that work as pilots, night watchmen or skippers. According to a young pilot `it was actually like a dream', working by the IJ river at night. And this is what it looks like: a dream world. Between interviews, Boonstra makes her camera glide through the area, along the quay, across the water, along cranes, containers and sea-going vessels. A world of lamps, reflections and shadows. In this landscape of stone and metal, an extraordinary group of individuals lives and works. For example, an English woman cleans up a submarine for a party, a refugee from former Yugoslavia has created a place for himself and a night watchman has to `see to it that that boat stays where it is'. Peaceful music emphasises the relative quiet, in which the interviewees reflect on their lives and the harbour.
13 Mar 2016
Combining archival footage with rotoscopic animation, Tower reveals the action-packed untold stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors of America’s first mass school shooting, when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others.
19 Nov 2012
A backstage and on-stage look at Nicki Minaj's career during the Pink Friday Tour, festivals, and more.
13 Apr 2022
HipHop as a language and an outlet for young people: The film follows the youngest class members of a dance academy on their way to becoming professional dancers. Many of the students come from the socially deprived areas of Paris. Accompanied by a pulsating, dancing camera that pulls the audience right into the action, the film negotiates themes such as origins, pains, dreams and hopes.
15 May 2007
Virgin School follows the emotional and physical journey of 26-year-old virgin James as he embarks on a unique four-month course for sexually inexperienced men in Amsterdam
22 Oct 2023
This one-of-a-kind comedy special showcases the comedian's riotous stand-up performance, exploring everything from the Disability experience to her Italian-Catholic upbringing to body image issues and more.
06 Oct 2017
When Werner Herzog was still a child, his father was beaten to death before his eyes. His mother was overwhelmed with his upbringing and thereupon shipped him off to one of the toughest youth welfare institutions in Freistatt. This was followed by a career as a bouncer in the city's most notorious music club and an attempt to start a family. Today, the 77-year-old from Bielefeld lives with his dog Lucky in a lonely house in the country. Despite adverse living conditions, he has survived in his own unique and inimitable way.
03 Feb 2021
A worn-out floor, the hole underneath, a political activist, and the Ouled Sbita tribe are the protagonists in this political satire. For 23 years, the director’s chair at an international art institute scratched the wooden floor. This 102cm x 120cm floor section is cut out and sent to an expropriated piece of land in Morocco. In The Hole’s Journey, Ghita Skali uses sharp wit, personal stories and playful editing to touch on specific power dynamics and freedom of choice.
01 Jan 1981
Johan van der Keuken went against the grain in 1980: from Amsterdam (on April 30 with the coronation riots and squatting actions) via Paris, southern France and Italy to Egypt. He made his personal travelogue in three parts for VPRO television. Later, he fused the three parts into one long movie.
10 Mar 1970
Bas Jan Ader rides his bike into a canal in Amsterdam.
03 Aug 1966
The dutchified Hungarian Joszef Katús returns, after a months-long absence, to Amsterdam on 29 April 1966. The arrival of the Provos changed a great deal in the Dutch capital. The film follows Katús, mostly roaming the streets, in a loose documentary style. The events are set against the backdrop of four national occasions - The Queen's Birthday, Labour Day, Liberation Day and Remembrance Day.
31 Dec 2021
Presents a day in the life in Amsterdam, a city in transformation, captured shortly after the turn of the millennium, and shortly before the digital revolution would speed up the pace of life considerably. Shot in a fly-on-the-wall style.
01 Mar 2018
The city from the unique perspective of the many wild animals and plants that inhabit it. Seen through the eyes of the adventurous urban cat, Abatutu.
12 Dec 2024
UNESCO Memory of the World: Explore the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica’s new home with 25,000+ rare books on alchemy, hermetica & mysticism at the Embassy of the Free Mind museum, set in Amsterdam’s historic canal mansion, the House with the Heads.
01 Oct 2013
Amsterdam's world-famous red-light district is the fascinating backdrop to the story of plucky prostitute Lina as she searches for Mr Right. Lina thinks she has found true love with American punter Sean, but she may be treading a fine line between fantasy and reality. Could Sean be her Prince Charming or will she end up heartbroken? With hard-won access to this notoriously secretive, hidden world, Sexwork, Love & Mr Right will be a revealing and thought-provoking documentary with multiple supporting narratives from experienced punters to wise madams. As streetwise sexworker Lina navigates the highs and lows of her precarious new relationship, the film asks can sexworkers ever really find true love?