Supported projects

GUANGZHOU - Stringent European migration legislation has shifted traditional African migration circuits towards China. The process of obtaining a European visa is long and tiresome. It can take up to two years without any guarantee of actually acquiring the visa, a Chinese visa takes a day. This led to the formation of African communities in China, such as the Congolese community in the Xiaobei district in the city of Guangzhou.

KIVU - Without fuel our cars will stop moving; it is something we all know and realise. Far less of our attention is aimed at raw materials. Unrightfully so, because without raw materials cars it would not even be possible to make cars. The average car contains about a mile of copper wire, copper that is mainly looked for in Africa.

MOSTAR - Sem Bucman (31) has been living in Belgium for 20 years. He was born in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The war in the early 90s tore the city apart. Also the famous bridge was destroyed, as was the house where Sem lived as a child.  All the photos, his memories of his childhood, disappeared.

RABAT - It used to be no more than the curse of acrimonious racists. Today, however, it is an optimistic dream. Increasingly more well-educated Moroccans born in Belgium, children or grandchildren from former migrant workers, decide to build a future in the country that their parents fled from so many years earlier.

TRENTON – America is electing a new president. But what do new Americans, such as people from Antwerp in Belgium who started a new life in the States years ago, think about that? For ten weeks, journalist Niels Daniel and cameraman Nico Beckers travelled through four American states to find out: New Jersey, Colorado, Georgia and New York.

ZURICH - Is there economic life besides capitalist companies and public enterprises? If you take a broader view of the world, you will see how financial capitalism is failing most of all, plunging the global economy into one crisis after another. You will also see how many governments are failing to find the answer to numerous problems and are fleeing their responsibility for a well-functioning economy.

JUAREZ - From 2009 until 2011, Dutch war photographer Teun Voeten focused his attention on the drug-related violence that has been destabilising Mexico. He visited Ciudad Juárez, the epicentre of the violence, as well as other hotspots such as Culiacán and Michoacán.

PHILADELPHIA - As American voters prepare for the Presidential ballot, the economic inequality is the largest since the Great Depression. While the financial crisis left many people without a job and a lot of debt, a small majority is doing better than ever.

PORTO-NOVO - The social and ecological drama of Nigeria's oil industry is a well-known fact in the West. A story that is directly connected but largely unknown, however, is how neighbouring Benin has become dependent on illegal oil smuggle from Nigeria for its fuel supply. One of the most conspicuous things about the Benin oil smugglers are the disabled smugglers on their strange Vespa tricycles.

BRUSSELS - In 2003, Belgium adopted a law intended to control arms brokers. This law doesn't meet the European requirement and, furthermore, has never been applied by the authorities, although the problem was well known.

WASHINGTON DC - The Flemish public service broadcaster's America watcher, Björn Soenens, takes you on a fascinating journey through America - the country and its citizens. Read about that amazing country, full of dreamers and deceivers.

NEW DELHI - According to The Times of India, the medical tourism sector in India adds up to at least a hundred thousand patients per year - and an amount of dollars many times higher. Consequently, the country was convulsed when in the Summer of 2010 British microbiologist Timothy Walsh announced he had discovered a new antibiotic-resistant gene in the capital New Delhi.

STELLENBOSCH - South African winegrowers produce more than seven thousand different wines and are among the wealthy elite in the country. Millions of consumers around the world taste the high quality of South African wine, but the workers who pick and process the grapes barely enjoy the added value produced.

BRUSSELS - In spite of the efforts made by NGOs and the distribution of EU funds, Europe’s main minority is no better off than it was 10 years ago. Anno 2012 the significant proportion of Europe’s 12 million Roma live in deplorable conditions. Ethnic tensions are on the rise. Dutch journalist Hellen Kooijman reconstructed more than ten years of failed European policy. A lack of appropriate supervision in Brussels, the corruption of local leaders and the indifference of national governments are at the root of the problem.

OSTEND - Rumours about the people in power in Ostend (Belgium) are growing louder: exceeding authority, conflicts of interest, the strange roll basketball plays in the political and socio-economic fabric. Investigative journalists Wim Van den Eynde and Luc Pauwels decided to have a closer look at Johan Vande Lanotte, Deputy Prime Minister - and one of the most influential politicians - of Belgium.

SAINTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA - This book is based on thirty memorable life stories of youngsters who set out on a walk. How do they remember the trek? How do they look back on it? What did that journey mean for the rest of their lives? Also thirty compagnons voice their thoughts - parents, counselors and juvenile court judges.

GHENT - In the documentary Exit Concentration, Luk Dewulf and Inge Wagemakers shed light on the Flemish educational landscape and give us a glimpse behind the scenes of the much-discussed but little-known concentration schools.

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan, The most dangerous country in the world is the first book by a Dutch journalist about the current situation in Pakistan. It is a brutally honest story about politics, terrorism, and crime based on the author’s own research in the area.

ZAVENTEM - Never before did a terrorist attack have such an impact on daily life as 9/11. More than anything else, plane traveling became quite a bit more strenuous. Budgets for the war on terror are growing every year. Security forces want to intercept every possible terrorist and the security industry comes up with a solution for every possible problem.

CAIRO - Baharak Bashar was thirteen when she fled from Iran to Belgium with her mother. Away from the ayatollah's and their religious narrow-mindedness.

CHARLEROI - While Belgium is dying, Pascal Verbeken walks back to the era of Great Expectations. He makes a hike along the Grand Central Belge, the nineteenth-century private railway line that linked Wallonia with Flanders. An artery of triumphant Belgium, about 200 kilometres long.

CUIÚ CUIÚ - Today’s society relentlessly pushes us to live life in the fast lane. Reacting to this, photographer Guido Sterkendries has developed an alternative vision. Accustomed to working in extreme habitats, he has spent most of his life exploring and discovering the unknown and the people who live there. By focusing on threatened tribes and endangered life forms, he opens a window on a world that many thought had vanished.

CAIRO - The uprisings in the Arab world have been one of the headlines of the news for months. Especially the developments in Egypt - the most populous and important Arab country - are closely followed. Especially now, when the first free and open elections are in full swing. The question everyone is asking is: will Egypt finally, after decades of dictatorship, get a democratic and civil government?

BUSAN - From 29 November to 1 December 2012, the topic of development aid will be high on the international agenda. In Busan, South Korea, more than 2,000 government, multilateral organisation and NGO representatives will work on making development aid more efficient. In an increasingly complex and fast-changing world of emerging powers, financial crises and sweeping austerity measures, the goal in Busan is to establish a new global partnership for development.

MAPUTO - To his great surprise, film journalist and historian Guido Convents was told by Portuguese journalists in 2006 that Mozambique had no significant film culture or production. Even within the Belgian film industry, nobody seemed to have any knowledge of Mozambican cinema.

BRUSSELS - From the smouldering ashes of Sabena to the first flight of Brussels Airlines, via the parcels of DHL and Chinese tourists in Brussels: this book tells the story of a world in change in the sky. On the basis of documents, figures, analyses and privileged witnesses, it also sketches a portrait of what Belgium will look like from the air.

BRUSSELS -There are few issues that have been as socially sensitive as immigration in recent years. At the same time, the policy on migration goes in all directions. While European countries mainly want to make access more difficult for newcomers and expel more people, the European Commission is actively attracting immigrants with the new Blue Card system, a work permit for non-Europeans valid throughout the Union.

WASHINGTON DC - 'De kleuren van Amerika' (The colours of America) provides an overview of American diversity in all of its forms. The multicultural society is not all sunshine and roses, but a work in progress, with beautiful and ugly sides, successes and failures.

BELGIUM - Scientists conduct research on behalf of government and industry. Companies finance chairs and universities derive income from patents on research results. The three-part series 'University for Sale?' examines the relationship between science, government and industry.

BRUSSELS - Eight underage asylum seekers were followed by Catherine Vuylsteke for one year. The Nadaar collective and three guest photographers each portrayed one of the youngsters.