Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids

Documentary depicting the lives of child prostitutes in the red light district of Songachi, Calcutta. Director Zana Briski went to photograph the prostitutes when she met and became friends with their children. Briski began giving photography lessons to the children and became aware that their photography might be a way for them to lead better lives.

2004-12-08 | en

Ruurdt

In 2023, there were an estimated 30.6 thousand homeless people. This number continues to rise at an alarming rate. One of them is the headstrong Ruurdt. He has difficulty getting help and cannot adapt well to our society. He is now also in danger of losing the houseboat that was assigned to him. 'Ruurdt' is an intimate portrait of a man on the fringes of our society.

2024-09-16 | nl

I Am Johnnie

A documentary about three men in the criminal environment of Amsterdam as they deal with unemployment, probation, and divorce.

1994-07-19 | nl

1964-1968 Trams in Amsterdam, Rotterdam en Den Haag

2003-01-01 | nl

The Hole’s Journey

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.

2021-02-03 | ar

Bicycle

Rhythmic composition of moving photographs of cyclists in Amsterdam, ‘set’ to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

1965-01-01 | nl

Wrong Fellows

Documentary about four maffia-like friends based in Amsterdam.

2010-09-05 | nl

Fall 2

Bas Jan Ader rides his bike into a canal in Amsterdam.

1970-03-10 | en

Sexwork & Me

21st century legal prostitution through the frank stories of Amsterdam red-light district sex workers at a time when tighter regulation threatens their livelihood.

2012-01-01 | en

Surprising Amsterdam

An exciting video tour of Amsterdam.

1990-06-05 | en

Bruin Jackson Superstar

Bruin has a new mission: to become a superstar, just like his idol Michael Jackson. Although singing is not his greatest talent, he starts - supported by friends and colleagues - to build a music career.

2024-10-25 | nl

Swimming with Wings

A short animated documentary exploring the immigration experience through the eyes of children learning how to swim with clothes on in the Netherlands.

2023-10-11 | en

De minder gelukkige terugkeer van Joszef Katus naar het land van Rembrandt

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.

1966-08-03 | nl

Haven, Roaming Through the Night

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.

2004-11-29 | nl

Hotel Mokum

Pak Mokum Terug is the name of a group of Amsterdam activists that refuse to accept that the basic right to housing no longer appears to apply. The group’s name means “Take Back Amsterdam,” Mokum being the traditional nickname for a capital city in which today, for more and more people, a home is becoming unaffordable. Against this background, Hotel Mokum reports on the squatting of a dilapidated hotel in the city center, narrated in the voice of a fictitious activist.

2024-03-21 | nl

Hans, Life Before Death

Hans: Het Leven voor de dood (Hans, Life Before Death) is a documentary feature film about the life of the young composer Hans van Sweeden (1939-1963) and those who knew him intimately. The film is about the harrowing life of the musician, poet and actor Hans van Sweeden (1939-1963), who ended his life at the age of 24. Simultaneously, the film offers a poignant portrait of his contemporaries in the turbulent fifties and sixties and the children of the Nazis. It won the Golden Calf for Best Feature Film in 1983. Award of the Dutch film critics, 1983; the Belgian film critics Award, 1984; Best Dutch Documentary 1980-1990. (Wikipedia)

1983-01-01 | en

I'm Afraid It's a No

Eighteen-year-old Sofie is looking for a room in Amsterdam. So she has to interview for them. Time and again she has to convince the residents of student houses that she is the most suitable candidate for the vacant room. The competition is fierce, the residents are ruthless. Who is accepted by the group, who is rejected? How far will the candidates go? And what does that process of judging and being judged do to Sofie?

2017-09-23 | nl

The Price of Shelter

Private-sector rented accommodation for the Surinamese and Antillean Dutch who increasingly moved to Amsterdam from these former colonies in the early seventies was woefully inadequate. In 1982, André Reeder graduated from The Netherlands Film Academy (NFTVA) with Onderneming onderdak (The Price of Shelter) – a documentary about this appalling situation.

| nl

Rebellious City

Rebellious City is a documentary about the Provo movement and the city of Amsterdam in the sixties.

2015-02-05 | nl

Once Upon Amsterdam

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.

2021-12-31 | en