Dutch Light is a documentary about the light in Holland. Is it unique, as people say, or is that simply a myth? The myth goes back a long way. It’s the idea that light and observation were the cornerstones of a visual culture dating back to the 17th century. The German artist Joseph Beuys, however, says that the culture of observation came to an end in the 1950s. Dutch Light breaks new ground by exploring that myth and capturing it in images. Distinguished artists, art historians and scientists from different countries address the questions raised by Beuys’s theory. What is Dutch light? Is it different from light anywhere else in the world? Has it really had a significant impact on art and science? And is it true that it has changed or disappeared? Dutch Light is an extraordinary film about a phenomenon that is as ordinary as it is unique.
Producers: Radio Netherlands Television
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The Last Words of Dutch Schultz
An animated film, portrayed in the style of cheap American slander magazines of the fifties. Flows of associative images illustrate the last words of the notorious gangster Arthur Flegenheimer, also known as Dutch Schultz. Dutch Schultz was at the height of his carreer and, second only to Al Capone, one of the most powerful and notorious racketeer-bootleggers during the prohibition years of the twenties and thirties in America. On October 23rd, 1935 Dutch was shot down in the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey by hitmen from “Murder Incorporated” and died a day later from his wounds.
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Eye on the Caribbean
This program is a unique exploration of some of the remotest places on earth combined with stunning photography of both wildlife and local culture, celebrating the huge natural diversity of this planet by looking through the lens of wildlife photographer Dos Winkel. Join Dos as he visits the Bonaire Treasure Island, situated just 20 miles off the coast of Venezuela, Bonaire is the least developed and least populated of the five islands of the Netherlands Antilles. Then onward to Saba. Verdant green with lush vegetation, Saba is an extinct volcano that seems to shoot out of the sea. Only five miles square at the base its peak rises to over 2,800 feet. First discovered by Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, the island constantly changed hands between the European powers for centuries until 1816, when it fell definitely in the hands of the Dutch.