Supported projects

THE HAGUE - The Dutch philosopher Spinoza is 'in the air', interest in him recently increasing considerably. At the same time, however, The Netherlands seem to turn away from the freedom of expression and tolerance that are championed in his work.

BRUSSELS - Apache.be’s Tom Cochez spent two years investigating the remarkable relation between Vlaams Belang, its top people and money. Dozens of conversations with people who have been involved with the party since the early days, who were or still are in the heart of the party and who witnessed things with their own eyes, paint an alarming picture of the money machine behind Vlaams Belang and raise one question: why does the party systematically overpay friends in the printing business, sponsors’ companies or organisations of its own party members?

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?

LIMA - Peru is one of the economically fastest growing countries of Latin-America. Still, inequality stays high and social conflicts are raging throughout the country.

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.

KINSHASA - Congolese-Australian journalist Eric Mwamba went on a search to find the secret behind the riches of the Congolese elite. Many of his witnesses prefered staying anonymous for fear of their lives – which looks like a kind of Congolese omerta. John Vandaele selected Mwamba’s strongest observations and added some personal touches.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

KIGALI - Paul Kagame's Rwanda has been sailing its own political course for sixteen years now, with a great deal of international support. Joris Verhaegen and the theatre group A Two Dogs Company want to contribute to the debate about this development policy with their play Talk. Verhaegen wrote an opinion piece for MO*, an abridged version of his Rwanda Inc. business plan.

BRASILIA - For 'Braziliaanse bloei' (Brazilian boom) Lode Delputte travelled throughout the country. In his passionate stories, Delputte outlines the great changes that make Brazil such a fascinating country.

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.

RIYADH - The attacks of 11 September 2001 sent shockwaves around the world. Ten years later, journalist Lisa De Bode reveals that a quiet gender revolution is underway in the Arab world that could pave the way for greater democracy.

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?

BRUSSELS - A fascinating view behind the scenes of the Council of Ministers. Here, the idea of European unity is not at all obvious. Also, when ministers are occupied with national matters, diplomats seem to have a substantial influence in shaping European decisions.

BRUSSELS - targetBRUSSELS gathers information on the activities of Eastern European secret services in Brussels during the Cold War. The research is based on the intelligence archives of the former German Democratic Republic, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania.

CARACAS - In The Oil King, Edwin Koopman paints a sobering portrait of a divided country. What began as an investigation into the origins of a Latin American revolution evolved into a deeply personal narrative of power, ideals, hatred, passion, and disappointment.