Peacecamp ’89 – Youth exchange Northern Ireland
Summer ’89. My very first docu-style report
In 1989, I participated in a Dutch-Northern Irish peace exchange and co-hosted my first video report. Shot on a rented Sony Betacam SP kit — the broadcast gold standard of its day, edited on tape, this 23-minute piece piqued my fascination with cross-cultural encounters. The footage is archived due to music rights. Curators, educators, or funders interested in social-documentary roots may request a private screener.
This film meant the start of my career, I was asked to do the voice-over and for the first time I had the chance to look and participate in an editing room.
Summer ’90 - co-direction, script
In 1990, our group from 1989 paid a counter visit to Northern Ireland to meet our friends from Texel again. First half of the tour was spent in Belfast and the second we were travelling the country.
This time I was the co-director, co-editor and voice over. I loved putting together all the bits and pieces we learned from this fascinating country and the pictures we gathered. Analysing and organising the facts - we had visited all political parties for example, including Sinn Fein - I could fully enjoy my strategic and creative talent. I enjoyed working together with my co-director. Sparring over storylines and details, selecting images, music. Hours of hard work and having fun in the studio. I now realise I was living my dream. Back then we just did. Like it was perfectly normal. Had I only known about film school!
