Rotterdam city poet Dean Bowen paints a harsh and bleak picture of how we, the Dutch, ignore the sins of our colonial past.
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The people behind it
Dean Bowen
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Two competing lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops, their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.
A black, female, apprentice carpenter faces discrimination and must choose between taking a stand or keeping her job.
Vincent is an all-too-human man who dares to defy a system obsessed with genetic perfection. He is an "In-Valid" who assumes the identity of a member of the genetic elite to pursue his goal of traveling into space with the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.
A moving tale about young immigrant children in the Netherlands, and the people they look up to.
Arrested for an unnamed crime, Josef K. is trapped in a surreal bureaucratic maze where justice is unknowable and guilt is assumed.
On Christmas Eve, Francesca sets out for Rotterdam in order to find her little sister, who has run off with her musician boyfriend. On the way, she picks up Gerlinde, a heartbroken older woman at the end of her rope.
In a seemingly easy theatre exercise, Rebeca, a young Roma woman, student at an elite acting school, is pushed to confront her biggest fear.
A story about racism, discrimination, and prejudice: in a dystopic future governed by only women, there is a fight between blondies and brunettes. In this society, the blondies are discriminated against because of the color of their hair.
Jakob Yzermans is an American salesman looking for his roots in Rotterdam. He thinks his father (Hendrik Yzermans) has left Holland with the money he took from his collegues. Jakob is trying to get the money together to repay the money. While doing so he encounters more and more problems.
A young victimized boy decides to confront his inner demons by drowning himself, and during the process finds purpose and meaning in his life.
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity.
Framed for murder and left for dead, a local legend comes back to make the guilty pay as he seeks revenge on those who killed his family, in this traditional Western about one man who stood against injustice.
Shun and Nagisa first meet and fall in love during their first year of high school. While Shun is graduating from university, Nagisa tells him that he doesn't see a future for them. Despite Shun's strong feelings, they go their separate ways. Years later, Shun is now a store owner, living alone in a rural area. Out of the blue, Nagisa arrives with his six-year-old daughter, Sora. Spending time together, Shun realizes he still harbors feelings for Nagisa. Can Nagisa reconcile with his feelings for Shun, which have been there all along?
Fictionalized from a true story, this docu-drama takes us on a journey through Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul and into the lives of Brazilian gauchos. Beautifully shot landscapes form the backdrop for a simple story of friendship and tolerance between Govinda and John, as Govinda explores his attraction to his fellow cowboy.
Akira works as a lawyer. One day, he meets with his former client Rie, who asks Akira to perform a background check on her late husband Daisuke.
Hoa is a young engineer and computer specialist who arranges the database of an institution. She is hardworking, yet her dedication goes unnoticed, and her boss dismisses her work and expertise as “redundant”.
Djomeh is a young Afghan man who has come to live in Iran because of family trouble. Working as a milk boy, he encounters discrimination from the Iranian villagers and disdain from Habib, a fellow Afghani to whose trust Djomeh was given. The only person who shows any friendliness to him is his employer, who Djomeh asks to intercede for him in asking a woman from the village for her hand in marriage.
At the strong insistence of his father, Ushimatsu Segawa conceals his origins from a “buraku” area of low-class “untouchables,” leaving his hometown to serve as an elementary school teacher where he excels and is loved by his students. But he constantly struggles with the secret of his low-birth status and is disturbed by all of the discrimination levelled upon his class. It prevents him from pursuing a romance with Shiho, whom he meets at the temple where he resides, but who descends from a samurai family.
Claudia, a trans-Chilean midwife, remembers the hardest and most difficult moments she had to face in order to live her identity. The documentary tells her history, her struggles and the constant abuses she had to live on a society that still excludes those that are considered "different".
Ayana is eagerly anticipating an important relay race. Just before the start, she is confronted with discrimination and self-doubt, which shake her determination. To make it to the starting line, she must recognize her own worth and find new confidence.
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Will arrives for his last year at Military Academy, in the Deep South USA, in the 1960's. A black student, Pearce, has been accepted, for the first time and Will is asked to keep an eye out for the inevitable racism. The racists come in the form of The Ten, a secret group of the elite students. They want Pearce to leave on his own free will, but are prepared to torture him to make it 'his free will'. Will is forced to help Pearce and he is prepared to risk his own career to do so.
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
A poetic and powerful story of a father forced to choose between love and duty.
Disgrace is the story of a South African professor of English who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his good looks, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect his cherished daughter. After having an affair with a student, he moves to the Eastern Cape, where he gets caught up in a mess of post-apartheid politics.
Up-and-coming sports reporter rescues a homeless man ("Champ") only to discover that he is, in fact, a boxing legend believed to have passed away. What begins as an opportunity to resurrect Champ's story and escape the shadow of his father's success becomes a personal journey as the ambitious reporter reexamines his own life and his relationship with his family.
A man is released from prison after 15 years. He reunites with his high school girlfriend, now a single mother of three. What follows is a lyrical take on love, regret and second chances.
Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Alone in her empty flat, from her window Anne observes the people passing by who nervously snatch up the personal belongings and pieces of furniture she has put out on the pavement. Her final gesture of taking a ring off her finger signals she is leaving her previous life in Holland behind. She goes to Ireland, where she chooses to lead a solitary, wandering existence, striding through the austere landscapes of Connemara. During her travels, she discovers a house that is home to a hermit, Martin.
Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir.
After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
An ex-felon returns home from prison and must confront the demons of his past.
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
In New York City, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents' bitter custody battle.
