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Documentary
Joost Engelberts investigates how a conspiracy about satanic ritual abuse can escalate into a socially explosive story. Who are the people involved? What exactly is being alleged? And how can a local event grow into a national phenomenon?
At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of people laid flowers at the cemetery in Bodegraven. The incident was prompted by a former resident who claims to have been a victim of ritual abuse as a child by a satanic cult consisting of influential figures. He alleges that several children were tortured and murdered. What began with the laying of flowers quickly escalated. Calls for violence, serious threats, and even a death list circulated. Joost Engelberts investigates how this bizarre situation could arise, what exactly is being claimed, and who is behind it.
Joost Engelberts discovers that the Bodegraven conspiracy is particularly prevalent in radical Christian circles. He investigates what exactly constitutes a satanic cult, who believes in it, and what they believe. What is this based on? Simultaneously, the police and the judiciary are trying to get a handle on the disruptive influence of these theories. Although no one initially wants to talk to him, Engelberts eventually succeeds in penetrating the truth and uncovering the stories.
Stories of satanic abuse regularly surface around the world. For example, in the United States, where theories about repressed memories and split personalities merge with infanticide and satanic abuse. It began with a bestseller, written by a psychiatrist and his patient, about alleged satanic abuse. This book led to a public panic: the so-called Satanic Panic. Joost Engelberts retraces the steps and discovers how a form of therapy is also being applied in the Netherlands and how news programs have uncritically covered the stories of satanic abuse for years.
The idea that an evil elite abuses and murders children to serve the devil sounds unbelievable. Yet it's taken seriously by journalists, politicians, and therapists. A detective team that investigates child pornography daily devotes two years to thoroughly investigating claims of child abuse by a cult. But what happens when their research findings are ignored, distrusted, or even suppressed by those same journalists, therapists, and politicians because they don't fit? And what is the effect on the people who are identified, hounded, and threatened as perpetrators?
Self
The specter of drug trafficking haunts Europe. Struggling with ultra-violent criminal groups that control the vast majority of cocaine trade, European police forces are overwhelmed. The epicenter of all this trafficking: the Netherlands. A nation at the forefront of international trade and drug policy. This two-part film delves into the origins of European drug trafficking through the unique history of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
This series gives access to the “red areas” of Europe, through the eyes of ordinary people whose lives have been changed dramatically by the global Corona-pandemic. A chorus of voices reveals how the Coronavirus has influenced our psychological and emotional states and has changed the way we live. Italy, that has been one of the hardest hit in Europe by the pandemic is the first port of call in the series, then the focus moves to the rest of the continent, with stories that repeat themselves and yet change in the various countries as different cultures react in various ways to the challenges to our health, work, education, and economy. Pain, anger, fear. But also the hope and desire to fight and change. The feelings and stories of the people who are struggling to contain the pandemic.
A major revolution is underway in the independent restaurant sector in Quebec. The restaurant after arrives in the kitchens to meet chefs whose lives have been turned upside down overnight by the pandemic... and for the better! Inspiring stories and intimate testimonials that take us behind the scenes of this industry.
Warm up to a different tomorrow with this short docuseries of personal reflections expressed through words, movement & dance. An experimental collaboration between writers and creative movers from around the world during the first covid-19 lockdown, in spring & summer 2020. From visualization to embodiment, from letters of love to sobering realizations, we're reminded in times of extreme uncertainty that a basic human need emerges... that of reimagining the future. Eight stand-alone episodes created together while being apart - in Lebanon, France, Iran, Jordan and the USA.
