Supported projects

RAMALLAH - In Beyond the Wall, we follow two young Palestinians who face many restrictions on a daily basis, yet have decided to pursue their dreams despite everything. In Palestine, the worlds of sports and politics are closely linked.

STANLEYTOWN - In 1964 some 2000 hostages were saved out of the hands of Congolese rebels by Belgian para troopers. But the events behind that success story paved the way for the autocratic regime of President Mobutu.

NAYPYIDAW - What nobody expected happened anyway. The army in Myanmar (formerly Burma) initiated a transition that had to transform one of the world's oldest dictatorships into a democracy. After fifty years of repression, a new constitution was drawn up and democratic elections were held. Western diplomats and companies plunged directly into the reborn Southeast Asian nation.

CAIRO - Three years after the revolution daily life in Egypt is finally, slowly, resuming its pace. How do you continue after the initial euphoria fades away and a stone-cold reality looks you dead in the face? The young Flemish journalist Annabell Van den Berghe takes us along through her Cairo, the city where she studied and where she still often spends weeks or months for her job.

BUTEMBO - This documentary tells the story of exceptionally strong women in eastern Congo. The region has been the scene of a bloody conflict for over 15 years. Positive resistance is growing in the city of Butembo. The population is trying to regain control over its fate and life. When the violence in and around Butembo increases, the inhabitants are not watching from the sidelines. Sometimes they literally run into danger.

KISHESHE - Despite the efforts and the enormous amounts of money invested in the management of the conflict and the post-conflict situation in Eastern Congo, the different peace agreements failed to create the conditions for sustainable conflict resolution. Conflict in Eastern Congo; a tale of war and dreadful peace agreements.

BAGHDAD - Zelfa Madhloum went to Iraq to find Iraqis returning to their country after having emigrated. What is more, it was her first visit to her country of origin. Against everyone's advice, she decided to follow her destiny in Iraq. She immerses herself in the new, shocking world, gets to know other people her age and meets her family for the first time.

RAMALLAH - They are omnipresent in the West Bank and they look at you from walls, in bus shelters and on lampposts: the Palestinian martyrs. But what is the context of those decayed Palestinian martyr posters?

HERSTAL - Belgian military forces in Mali are at risk of being shot with Belgian weapons and munition that have fallen into the hands of Islamic rebels. The weapons come from Libya but were furnished by previous Belgian governments, material evidence and archive research shows. They have been circulating in the Arab world since the Libyan revolution.

CAIRO - Late 2011, early 2012. While people are dying on Tahrir Square, four Belgian photographers go in search of personal stories in a metropolis of 20 million inhabitants where fault lines have suddenly been enlarged. This results in images that you don't see on TV or in the newspaper.

NICOSIA - Since its foundation, the European Union has worked to achieve border integration. Nevertheless, new borders are still being created and existing ones are being strengthened, especially within cities. Now that national borders are more permeable than ever due to globalisation, the strongest conflicts are related to urban space.

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.

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.

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.

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?

AMMAN - Journalists Majd Khalifeh and Pieter Stockmans, and photographer Xander Stockmans travel across North Africa and the Middle East for 5 months in search of dreams of freedom and happiness of ordinary people, workers, doctors, activists, young people, imams, priests, professors, trade union leaders, journalists, politicians,... They let the people behind the revolutions speak and share their dreams with Europe.

SARAJEVO - In December 2009, for the first time in eighteen years, a direct train departed from Belgrade to Sarajevo, from the current Serbian to the Bosnian capital. In 1991, that connection had been suspended. President Tito's multinational Yugoslavia fell apart, and for four years a war raged between Serbs, Croats and Muslims.

KABUL / ISLAMABAD - Afghanistan has been in a state of perpetual war for the past thirty years. Much of the misery that continues to shape our world today has arisen from this cauldron of turmoil and the surrounding area. Internal insurgencies are ongoing in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir. Regional conflicts extend as far as China, Iran and Russia. Not to mention Western geopolitics, which is directly linked to the growth and impact of international jihadism. But what do we really know about the causes and consequences of a war in which Belgian and Dutch soldiers are now also fighting?

ISLAMABAD - The American president Obama described a part of Pakistan as ‘the most dangerous place on earth’. The country is dangerous in two ways: dangerous to itself, as few places yield as many bomb attacks and victims, but also dangerous to the rest of the world, as the bombings are exported and Pakistan is a nuclear power, with ‘Islamic’ bombs that are perhaps not sufficiently secured.

YAMOUSSOUKRO - Anthropologist Karel Arnaut and photographer Raymond Dakoua have been following the patriotic militants since 2003. They describe and show the ex-militia members in their everyday environment and introduce the public to the world of the young ex-combatants, their activities and limitations, their memories and their expectations for the future. A report on their most recent stay in Ivory Coast. 

SREBRENICA - 15 years after the war in Bosnia over 7000 refugees still live in ‘temporary’ refugee camps in the heart of Europe. The Bosnians themselves want to forget about them, the NGO’s have left the country, moved on to new conflict zones. But the people are still there.

KINSHASA - More then a hundred years after the publication of Joseph Conrads’ book ’The Heart of Darkness”. Marc Hoogsteyns checks if the situation in Congo has changed. Despite all the trouble the author remarks that there is still hope for this country.

TARINKOT - How does a man with only a motorbike, a satellite phone and a small group of confidants become President of Afghanistan? In Expedition Uruzgan, Bette Dam reveals how Hamid Karzai liberated the province of Uruzgan from the Taliban after 11 September 2001. This was a crucial moment in Afghan history.

KABUL - There will soon be 100,000 Western troops in Afghanistan, including 400 Belgians. Yet year after year, the insurgents are gaining ground.

BRUSSELS - 'Gypsies. Sinti and Roma under the swastika' is the first Dutch-language overview book on the fate of Sinti and Roma in Europe during the Nazi era, from 1933 to 1945. Like the Jews, the so-called 'Gypsies' were persecuted because, according to Nazi ideology, they were an inferior race.

LUSAKA - Elections will be held in Zambia on 28 September 2006. President Mwanawasa hopes that voters will reward his efforts to combat corruption, but the likelihood of this is low. This is because Mwanawasa himself appears to have anything but clean hands. Meanwhile, Zambia and the rest of the world are still far from resolving the enormous looting network of former president Frederick Chiluba.

KIGALI - After the genocide of 1994, the Rwandan government temporarily suspended history from the school curriculum. The characters in After Years of Walking - children, teachers, genocide killers, students and historians - all find themselves in an uncertain zone between the old history and a new one.

GOMA - Today, Congolese Tutsis are returning home to the region where they have lived for centuries, and which, according to their leaders, rightfully belongs to them. Calling themselves 'Kongomani', or 'citizens of Congo', they are prepared to fight for their rights. They believe that the Congolese Hutus and other local tribes can live alongside them in peace.

JERUSALEM - Needless to say, the 'new intifada' in Israel/Palestine is having a major international impact. On the one hand, it is one of the longest-running and most mediatised conflicts of the post-war era; on the other hand, the coverage seems to be mostly one-sided. By this, Abicht means that the Israeli-American point of view receives much more attention than the Palestinian one, but also that the focus tends to be on external events and visible actions, while the underlying emotions and interests require much more attention.

BUKAVU - Finding out who they are is the aim of this documentary project. News reports suggest that genuine Mayi-Mayi militias are operating. In reality, however, the Mayi-Mayi are said to be nothing more than a hard core of poorly armed civilians. Nevertheless, they would make life extremely difficult for the occupying forces.