Tag Archives: series

Between the Americas (series)

Between the Americas is a search for the iconic sounds of Central America, and what they signify. For a long time, this region seemed to be on the ascendance, but opposing forces have hindered any positive developments. There have emerged two Americas, and in between these two visions, journalist Stef Biemans listens to what Central America has to tell. Biemans has lived and worked in the region for more than 15 years and illuminates the delicate situation of lots of Central Americans in a collidescope of sounds and stories.

 

Episode One –  Listening to San Blas

The Islands of San Blas are inhabited by the Kuna people, an Indigenous people who live on the rhythm of nature. As their islands are at the forefront of climate change, with the Caribbean Sea rising continuously, they face a huge dilemma: relocate to the mainland or to wait until the water comes? Stef Biemans preserves the last sounds of this extraordinary culture: a sewing machine, the threatening waves, a grated coconut and the singing palm tree.

Episode Two –  Panama’s Echo

Panama seems to be doing well. The economy flourishes and this results in a vertical building drive and an impressive skyline. Biemans visits the colourful neighbourhood at the foot of these buildings and finds out what has changed for the ordinary people of Panama.

Episode Three –  The Silence of Guatemala


If we listen carefully to the stories of the Maya people, we will hear a silence that has lasted for 40 years. This silence is about the genocide that took place under the rule of General Efraín Ríos Montt. It is called The Silence of Guatemala because the mass slaughter off the indigenous people has never been recognized. Has the moment arrived to break the silence?

Episode Four –  Costa Rica’s Happiness


Most people in Costa Rica – the happiest country of Central America – say their lives could not be any better. On a scale of 0 to10, the population on average award their happines a 9. But people in neighboring country Nicaragua are feeling far from okay. Recently a stream of refugees has fled to Costa Rica in their search for freedom and safety. Are they welcome and who is entitled to happiness?

 

Inside Maximum Security (series)

Five hardened criminals, One unique prison, in a ground-breaking observational documentary series, that will show you for the first time what prison is really like.

Singapore’s Changi Prison is a concrete purgatory, spartan to the extreme. There are no beds, no pillows and no chairs in the cells. A shower is done stooping above a toilet hole. Humiliating strip searches are routine, as a matter of security. Yet, practiced in this prison are some of the most sophisticated methods to reform the hearts and minds of the most recalcitrant prisoners. So much so that Singapore’s reoffending rates are among the lowest globally. Yet even at those low rates, at least 1-in-5 inmates are back in jail within 2 years after their release.

For the first time ever, six inmates, incarcerated multiple times and at least once at maximum security, agree to reveal their full identities, for our cameras to capture their lives behind bars, as they unfold. Will the regime in jail finally be enough for them to renounce a life of crime? Will this be their final stint in Changi Prison?


Episode 1 –  Life in Lockdown 

How hard is life in prison? We explore prison regime through the eyes of officers and inmates in Changi’s Maximum-security prison. How does an inmate live in a single-man cell?

In this first episode, we enter a world behind bars to meet the inmates. We follow Graceson, a gangster who manages to get himself a new tattoo in prison and is duly caned for it; Khai, a professional skateboarder who is just coming to terms with the loss of his career; Rusdi who is counting down to his release in 50 days using packets of snacks; And Boon Keng gets into trouble for keeping origami in his cell during a cell search.



Episode 2 –   Keeping Bonds Beyond Bars

An inmate sentenced to maximum security prison has nothing more to lose. Or so some would think.  But losing one’s freedom is nothing compared to losing one’s family.

We follow the residents of maximum security as they try to hang on to their relationships while in lockdown. Boon Keng attempts to reconnect with a daughter that he has not seen in years. Graceson’s tough persona unravels when his wife stops coming to visit him. Iskandar comes to terms with saying goodbye to his family as a death sentence looms over his drug trafficking charge. And family problems drive Khai to spiral, leading him to consider suicide.


Episode 3 –  Breaking Bad Habits

Life in maximum security is predictable. It’s rules, routines and rigor. No questions asked. No choices given.

But what happens when inmates step out into a world where they’re free to make decisions?

Desperate to break his cycle of reoffending, Boon Keng takes matters into his own hands and seeks to confront his greatest obstacle. After being given a new lease of life, Iskandar grasps an opportunity he neglected in his childhood. Rusdi’s loved ones try to dissuade him from returning to a career that sent him on a downward spiral. Under the supervision of psychologists, Khai revisits his dark past.


Episode 4 –   Road To Freedom

In the finale, our inmates try to ready themselves for their eventual return to the real world beyond the gates of Changi Prison. 

Graceson seeks help from a psychologist to prepare him for a call with his daughter, whom he has not spoken to for a year. Khai takes another step in managing his emotions, by counselling other inmates in managing theirs. Boon Keng is granted an interview for a programme that would see him serving the last third of his sentence in the community, but will he be able to convince his interviewers that he will not return to drugs? After 20 years, Iskandar is taking his ‘O’ levels again, how will he fare this time? Rusdi’s will be released in a matter of days; will he be able to stay out of trouble, and get released as scheduled?

Crossing the Andes (series)

Half of Latin American countries number among the top economies in the world to do business in, and for many the continent is an investor’s paradise. Why should we keep an eye on Latin America, and which changes are taking place there right now?

As the backbone of South America – some 7000 kilometres long and passing through seven countries – the Andes mountain range is a good place to ask that question.

You’ll find Chilean capitalism in the smog of Santiago, and will travel 30 years back in time through the clouds of remote Bolivian mountain villages. Latino’s are known as a politically engaged people. Always fighting, but with a smile. Strong, but not tough as nails. The history of this continent is one of ups and downs. Sometimes there’s a glimmer of hope, then everything seems to fall apart again. Is the continent crawling, walking or about to fall down again?

Stef Biemans’ journey starts in Tierra del Fuego and ends in Colombia. Along the way, he searches out small stories about big issues, which illuminate contemporary South America.

 

Episode 1.  The Man-eating Mountain

Stef Biemans travels the ridge of the Andes and wonders how South Americans are doing in Potosí, the highest city in the world, and once one of its richest, but also one where life can be short.

In the mining town of Potosí, capitalism was born, as it were. Here, the first coin was struck using silver from the mine of the ‘rich mountain’, which is still in use. So much silver has been extracted from this imposing mountain, you could use it to build a bridge to Spain. But you could also build a bridge out of the bones of dead miners and slaves. On average, miners only make it to the age of 45.

 

Episode 2. The Skyscraper of Santiago

In the Chilean capital of Santiago, Stef visits South America’s highest skyscraper. It was once built as a symbol of progress, but now the tower represents the dark side to that success story: record depression and suicide rates.

The highest tower in South America rises out of the Santiago smog, a symbol of the strong neoliberal economic system. But almost every month, someone jumps off of it. Nowhere else are depression rates as high as in this city of remarkable economic prosperity. In and around this skyscraper, Stef tries to find out where it all went wrong. What are the prerequisites for success and how do people survive in the smog of neoliberalism?

 

Episode 3. El Paraíso Technológico

Stef travels to Argentina’s southernmost tip Ushuaia, and discovers an impressive electronics industry among the penguins. Since it’s become known that there are jobs to be had in Tierra del Fuego, the capital of Ushuaia draws countless South American fortune seekers. What is this growth doing to the mountains surrounding the town?

Terra del Fuego is the new migrant’s paradise of South America. Since word’s gotten out that on the southern tip of the continent you can easily find work in an Argentinian electronics plant, the city has boomed. The Argentinian government has declared the area a tax free zone and companies have flooded in with smartphone and television factorys.

Growth is so rapid here, that it feels like a threat to many people; what is the impact on the nature of the surrounding mountains and its biodiversity? In Tierra del Fuego, Charles Darwin studied man and animal, and discovered the principles of his theory of evolution. Can modern-day inhabitants adapt to these changes?

 

Episode 4. Eternal life

In Ecuador, Stef Biemans visits the valley of eternal life – where the high life expectancy of its inhabitants has astonished observers – and investigates its finite nature. What do spry centenarians in Ecuador right below the equator do in order to stay healthy, what provisions are there for them should they fall ill, and how do South Americans deal with their elderly?

The Vilcabamba valley in Ecuador is known for its healthy old people. The fit old man who interrupts his work in the field to firmly shake Stef Biemans’ hand shows an official proof of identity with a 1913 birthdate. A little bit later, he lets his hips do the talking when he’s dancing.

Others in the valley also dance, but it doesn’t mean they’re all happy. An 89-year-old woman says she’d like for it to be over. ‘God is keeping me alive. I’m waiting for my time to come.’ A voluntary ending to this earthly life is so unthinkable, Biemans is afraid to even broach the subject.

 

Episode 5. My Mother-in-Law stayed at home

In this episode we look at the role of the mother-in-law, because Latino’s tend to talk about them rather a lot.

In Latin America, folk tales, songs, novels and soap operas are not complete without a distrustful mother-in-law. Why is that, he wonders? And has the role of the mother-in-law changed, now the economy is booming and whole families don’t have to live under one roof anymore? Or are mothers-in-law still as picky and meddlesome as Latino men would have us believe? Maybe they have good reason to be so, because men aren’t always gentle with their women.

 

Episode 6. The Mother of Colombia

In the final episode of the series, we journey down the Magdalena River, which originates in the Andes and ends in the Caribbean Sea.

This is the most hopeful period in Colombia’s history: the peace treaty has been signed and the country looks towards the future as new roads and bridges are being constructed. At the same time, the Magdalena River, also known as the mother of the country, still means a lot to inhabitants. What will progress destroy?

Reportage (series)

Blood Tusks

A hundred elephants die every day in Africa killed by poachers, members of the militia or of terrorist organizations like Al Shabab. Their tusks sell for €600 per kilo, and an emerging middle class in China demands ivory as symbol of their new wealth status and International criminal gangs are there to cater to them. The tusks of these poor animals are pulled out while they´re still alive because they´re more valuable that way, and most of those apprehended do not even face a fine. Experts from the UN, ecologist organizations and Interpol warn that Elephants face extinction. In this episode we investigate this brutal industry meeting with every link in the chain from the poachers and sellers to the environmentalist and law enforcement.

War Lords

Somalia has the perfect ecosystem for endless war: European mercenaries, pirates, Al Qaeda jihadists, weapon smugglers, drought and hunger. We enter an absurd, anarchic reality where warlords will switch allegiances to gain security and stability, again to make profit and perhaps again for religious conviction. We meet with one of ‘good’ warlords whose troop of mercenaries are working for the local government for now. His militia was the only one that could win the Islamists from Al Shabab, but in Somalia, loyalty is with the clan and not with the State. We venture into one of the refugee camps for the internally displaced, the result of an exodus that has displaced almost two million Somalis. With the highest child mortality rate in the world – Islamists prohibited vaccinations as they considered them part of a Western conspiracy – to add to their troubles, alongside war, hunger, disease and the threat of kidnap – Somalia can be considered the most dangerous country in the world.

Honduras: The Mara´s Life   

Nineteen people are murdered every day in Honduras, the most violent country without a war in the world. Sistiaga experiences the daily horror of life on the streets in the cities of Honduras. Within three days of arriving he has already witnessed 12 murders: taxi drivers, engineers, drug dealers, gangsters. Killing is not the means but the goal itself, and brutality prevails – beheadings and dismemberment no longer make headlines. Young gangsters will kill each other for a corner to sell their drugs. The Maras control whole neighbourhoods in Honduras, drug dealers impose their law and the police are infiltrated and corrupted.

Holy Land

Half a million Israeli settlers live within the Palestinian territories forming the main barrier to a two-state solution. They do not see themselves as colonists or invaders, but rather pioneers. Some see themselves as the vanguard that will welcome the arrival of the Messiahs to the lands of Abraham, and others consider themselves a barrier against Islamic extremism. Many however, live in the colonies because the houses are cheaper. Living at the ground zero of our ages defining conflict however takes its toll as we see both sides locked in every day conflict and mutual mistrust that permeates every waking minute, and is the prism through which their identity is defined. We travel to this committed and obstinate world, a community suspicious of foreigners and the International press, and that welcomes isolation. They are convinced that anti Semitism govern the world, and that this land was promised to them. We travel to the Holy Land.

No Country for Women

It’s one of the biggest economies in the world and one of the most powerful members of the G-20 club. But India is not a country for women. Every hour a woman is killed. Mothers will abort when they know the gender of the baby, and many women in India will suffer every kind of humiliation and violence. Some will be sold as sex slaves before they are 12 years old, others will be force to marry as soon as they have their first period. More will suffer beatings or will be raped by gangs without consequence, or burnt with acid by their own husbands following brutal cultural traditions. We travel to the most savage and archaic India. The one you can´t find on the touristic guides or at G-20 meetings.

Hunting Homosexuals

Uganda is a Paradise for European tourists, one of the most Christian countries in Africa and the most homophobic country on the continent. The Parliament debates the Anti Homosexuality Law, also known as the ‘Killing Gay Law’. ‘They are very dangerous, they can finish Humanity’ This is how reverend Simon Lokodo – Minister of Ethics and Integrity – speaks about gays in a deeply Christian country, one of 80 countries in the world where being homosexual is a crime. They contemplate the death penalty for what they call ‘grave homosexuality’ or life sentence for the couples that dare to get married. There have been already assassinations of activists, beatings, intimidation and persecution. This episode uncovers the messianic arguments of the leaders that spread hate, and we give voice to the few gay activists that dare to face them.

Riding the Beast

The Beast is the train running through Mexico that everyday carries Central American migrants who dream of a better life in the United States. The reality is that on this most dangerous of journeys, the threat of kidnap, rape, violence and murder is constant as carrying their worldly belongings makes them an obvious target for gangs. Catastrophic accidents causing amputation and death are commonplace giving ‘the beast’ a second nickname, the ‘migrant mincer’. 20,000 people a year are kidnapped, a further 5,000 ‘missing’ and the route is strewn with shallow graves. In this episode we ride ‘the beast’ and experience the hardships of those who risk everything on its back. We meet with migrants searching for a better life, victims of its brutality and the support industry of kitchens, guides and markets that have grown alongside this arduous track.

Albino: A Story of Fear and Prejudice

In Tanzania, albino´s are feared and hated as many believe they are cursed and bring bad luck. As a result of these terrible superstitions they have become victims of mutilation and murder. To be born as an albino in certain places in Africa continues to be the worst sentence. Black magic rituals use their organs and witch doctors will pay high fees for their limbs. In this episode we meet with the victims of this heartbreaking reality and those who are trying to end these barbaric traditions.

Walking on Bombs

Afghanistan is full of landmines, which emerged as the most lethal weapon used against North American military forces and their allies. We travel to the south of the country – the most dangerous zone – to enter the world of bomb disposal officers; men and women that walk on bombs. None of them match the stereotype seen in The Hurt Locker and none of them are adrenalin junkies.  In their own words, this is the quickest way of getting killed in Afghanistan. War is over but the bombs remain. Every day, at least one Afghan is killed or mutilated.

How to Organise a Genocide

Rwanda is a country full of murderers, a fact evidenced by the million people who were killed with machetes over 3 months during the Rwandan genocide. We return twenty years on when many of the killers are starting to be released from prison and return to their homes and villages, and live amongst their victims; those who survived the slaughter hiding in swamps. We meet with both the victims and the perpetrators of a genocide, living side by side, which has not been forgotten..

At Hell´s Gate

In this episode we visit Kawah Ijen´s active volcano in Indonesia to investigate the labour conditions that miners bear everyday in extracting its sulphur. In the mouth of the volcano labourers carry upon their backs over 70 kilos of sulphur blocks, double their own weight. We follow the trail of these men –  suffering the worlds worse working conditions – in to ‘the gates of hell’. A strong smell of rotten eggs impregnate everything, the eyes gets irritated, the sulphur makes breathing difficult, the throat burns… This is one of the most toxic places on earth. Few make it past fifty years of age and their bodies are deformed form the heavy loads, for which they are paid €0.01 a kilo or at most €3 a day.                

Pot Farm

The war on drugs is over. The world is rehashing it’s pot laws. Medical marijuana trials are set to begin in Australia. A controversial new industry is emerging…

Meet Max and James. They’ve decided to become farmers.

Max is a computer genius and James is a hustler, they’re clever city-slickers, but they’re ready for a tree change. They’ve never farmed before, they’ve got masses to learn, and they’re borrowing a whole lot of coin to get this venture started.

They’ve bought a banana plantation in Byron Bay, and they’re gonna turn it into a Pot Farm.

A couple of years ago Max had leukaemia, and during chemotherapy smoked pot to help with his nausea and lack of appetite. He was the only one not throwing up in his ward. He knows it works, so now he and James have bought a banana farm, and are going to grow pot. Legally.

Byron Bay has one of the biggest concentrations of illegal cannabis in Australia. So on the up side there will be a very skilled (and eccentric) advisors available. On top of this, they’ll employ WOOFers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) from all over the world.

But they’ll also have some pretty unhappy locals if their low-THC marijuana cross-pollinates and ruins the abundant illegal varieties.

They have in hand a coveted license to grow cannabis at less than 1% THC (the stuff that gets you high), with which they are hoping to produce medical oil. It’s well-documented that hemp oil is a wonderful product for patients, as it has such a low THC content, it’s very safe, especially for parents not wanting to get their kids high!

But the laws and bureaucracy are so complex with their new paranoid-level regulations that they are pushing the proverbial uphill for miles, especially when the government decides that hemp oil will not legally be used for medicinal purposes. It looks like all is lost, until they meet Mukti the white witch, who makes vaginal lubricant. With their magic ingredient they can help ladies orgasm. Another noble venture.

This has the potential to turn Max’s wife Kirby around. She’s not so keen on her hubby’s plans to farm marijuana in a mozzie-infested backwater with their baby Archimedes in tow. And Kirby and James aren’t so keen on each other either. But she does like the sound of the lube. And so do thousands of Italian women, it seems, through their new Italian investor.

If their incredibly ambitious plans fall in a heap, they will have borrowed to the hilt and sunk two million dollars into their venture for nothing.