MORE PROJECTS

Endless Consciousness, de Film • 2011

In this 86 minute cinema version of Eindeloos Consciousness – the film we explore the transformative character of four NDEs on the basis of their testimonies. Although each person experienced his own unique experience, there are striking aspects that they unanimously share with each other. People with such an experience are less afraid of death. Furthermore, they show less interest in external and material matters, feel one with nature and many of them developed a high intuitive and healing gift.

The personal, often emotional, stories are put into context through discussions with a number of important thinkers in this field. One of them is Carlo Leget, who, as a humanities scientist, deals with ethics of care and spirituality: palliative care and moral questions about the end of life are his specialty.

Biomimicry, Inspired by Nature • 2010

An expedition to the undiscovered treasure of nature. We humans face enormous challenges in our civilization. Climate change, the pressure on the world’s oceans and non-renewable energies are just some of our global environmental problems. The good news, however, is that there are solutions. And we can find them in nature.

3.8 billion years of evolution, our planet has produced millions of species of animals and plants that have more sustainable answers to our problems than we previously thought. The key to these important findings in nature is the still young but thriving science of biomimicry. Nature is a master of effective production: it produces economically, with a minimum of energy and resources and always brings back all waste products into the cycle.

Buddha’s Lost Children – Revisited • 2009

Hidden within the hills of the Golden Triangle of Thailand lies the ‘Golden Horse Temple’. With danger to his own life, the Buddhist monk Khru Bah, together with the young novices, fights drug abuse in the surrounding mountain villages. Director Mark Verkerk made the film Buddha’s Lost Children about this special monk and his pupils. By popular demand he now returns to see how the Suk, Pan Saen and the small, always cheerful Boontam are doing.

Together with Sister Mae Ead and the young novices, ’tiger monk’ Khru Bah continues to work on socio-cultural issues with the mountain people such as drug abuse, prostitution and lack of education with his great spirit and limited resources. He still meets with a lot of resistance; an attempt has even been made to poison him. We also meet the daughter of Khru Bah who patiently teaches the poorest people and gives up a life in the civilised world for working in the temple.

Camera’s voor De Onzichtbaren • 2008

Karin Kuiper, widow to the successful Dutch writer Karel Glastra van Loon, traveled to the border between Thailand and Burma, where she fulfilled a wish of Karel. An eventful journey that drew international attention to the ‘forgotten refugees’ of Burma.

Karel Glastra van Loon, one of the Netherlands’ most celebrated writers, died tragically on 1 July 2005 because of a brain tumor. He was 42 years old and left his wife Karin Kuiper and their three young children behind.

Two and a half years before Charles died, the young family spent three months in the small village of Mae Sot, in the border area west of Thailand. Karel did research for his latest book ‘De Onzichtbaren’. A poignant story that confronts the reader with the great suffering caused by one of the most brutal and repressive regimes in the world – the Burmese military dictatorship.

We Want That Too • 2007

Spin like a spider. Fly like a seagull. Stick like a gecko. How do they do that?

This new 12-part Dutch series examines how far man has come in his attempt to match nature. In a fascinating way science makes use of the effectiveness and inventiveness of nature. The We Want That Too series explains surprising developments clearly, and is also a treat for our senses.

Tulip – The Light of the East • 2003

Ask everyone, anywhere to mention something that is “typically Dutch” and the answer will be: tulips. However, before 1593 no Dutchman had ever seen a tulip. In the 400 years since, the tulip has not only become a symbol for the Netherlands, but the Dutch fascination for these most popular spring flowers has created the global tulip industry, with a production of three billion tulip bulbs per year, of which about two billion are exported throughout over the world. .

But a tulip is no Dutchman, it originated in the remote mountain ranges of Central Asia – in areas that are now part of Russia, around the Black Sea, in Crimea and the northern steppes of the Caucasus. In the 16th century when tulips were first introduced in Europe, these areas belonged to what was then known as the Turkish Ottoman empire. It is known that the Turks grew tulips in 1000 AD. Before tulips ever reached Europe, they had already enjoyed a long and fascinating rich cultural history.

Inside Mondriaan’s Workshop • 2011

Piet Mondrian moved to Paris in 1921, the city where he would stay for seventeen years. His Paris residence did not bring him fame, but this period was of crucial importance. He perfected his art and lived and worked in a studio with a unique, sleek interior that, like his neoplastic work, is painted in the colors white, yellow, red and blue.

Piet Mondriaan (1872-1924) was already a well-known artist in the Netherlands when he moved to Paris. There he discovered, initially under the influence of Cubism, a universal artistic language based on original geometric shapes and primary colours. Like Kandinsky and Malevich, he is one of the pioneers of pure abstraction, his work started a revolution in twentieth-century art.

There Is No Blue Without Yellow & Orange • 2010

The film There is No Blue and Yellow is a feature length documentary that talks about all the places where painter Vincent van Gogh lived and worked. Photographer / filmmaker Vincent van de Wijngaard travels to the premiere of the film in Tokyo and writes an almost daily travel report that connects the past and present.

“When I photographed the book Following Van Gogh seven years ago and returned from that trip in which I had visited 26 locations, I realised that this project really had to be made into a film. There were conversations I had during my journey that were impossible to translate into a single still image. Special stories I wanted to discover the origins of. If I wanted to do my story justice I would need to do extensive research and read up about it thoroughly. I was lucky: during the making of my book I was introduced to researchers who are active within the Van Gogh Museum …”

Himalaya Alert • 2009

Over the past three years, the Dutch journalist Bernice Notenboom has mounted expeditions through Siberia, across Greenland and to the North and South Poles to report on the effects of Climate Change. Her most recent expedition was to another critically threatened region: the high Himalayas.

The greater Himalayan region has the largest concentration of snow and ice outside the two poles. Warming in the Himalayan region has been around double the global average and the rising temperatures are leading to rapid melting of the glaciers. The implications are dramatic. If the Himalayas lose their snow and ice, much of the water supply to Asia’s 10 largest rivers will dry up, threatening the food security of almost one and a half billion people. Just imagine Asia without the ability to grow rice…

Skybound • 2008

A lot has changed in aviation in recent years. And that also applies to television. In 1991, when Mark Verkerk, Ton Okkerse and I started the Skybound series, we were the first to work in widescreen, which provided digital sound and installed it “non-linearly”. Nowadays, every computer is supplied with such an assembly program, “square” televisions are no longer being produced and everyone is wondering what analogue sounded like again.

The same applies to aviation. When we made our film the diesel engine was only a dream of some vague technicians, the glass cockpit was reserved for the newest jets, and “winglets” were fusions that mostly fitted with Burt Rutan’s designs. Now diesel engines are the powersource of today and glass cockpits are found in all new small aircraft. Becoming a pilot was once a dreaming boy’s dream and places in the cockpit were hard to come by. Nowadays an airline has to stand in line in order to be able to hire a competent flyer. The Very Light Jet, at the time of Skybound barely on the drawing tables, has been operational for a few months…

Buddha’s Lost Children • 2006

A documentary by Mark Verkerk about a former Thai boxer who, in the Golden Triangle of Thailand, receives orphans as a Buddhist monk. On the border areas of this rugged Thai region with many drugs smuggling and poor tribes – one man has dedicated himself to the welfare of the children.

The Buddhist monk Phra Khru Bah, a former Thai boxer, travels between villages on horseback to distribute health care and education among villagers who do not receive any support from their government. This so-called Tiger Monk has built an orphanage, school and hospital with his Golden Horse Temple – a safe haven for orphans. His students see him as a shaman, father figure and coach at the same time.