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Along the Maroni River between Suriname and French Guiana, Boogie, a boatman, transports fuel and supplies to remote Maroon and Indigenous communities by motorized canoe. As gold mining, floods, and corporate exploitation reshape life along the river, each stop becomes a place of exchange — of goods, stories, and songs. Moving against the current, he must navigate obligations to his clan, the river, and an unforgiving economy.
Back in his native Suriname to see his dying mother, an Afro-Surinamese student from the Netherlands’ former colony finds himself torn between his Amsterdam-based life with his white Dutch girlfriend and a future in his newly independent homeland when he falls for a local Hindostani nurse.
The notorious December killings in Surinam in the early eighties seem to be the starting point for the political thriller Paramaribo Papers. Largely shot in Surinam, this TV film tells about secret agent Robert Lipmann, who is ordered by the Dutch government to start a search for the disappeared journalist Kevin Poelgeest. The country is plagued by great agitation under the military regime of commander Raymond Markelo, who is forcefully thwarting the opposition. During his search, Lipmann meets Elvira, Kevin's sister who is having an affair with the commander. Like Lipmann, she is convinced that Kevin's supposed death involves a settlement in the drug scene. But then, important evidence pops up and the cause of Kevin's disappearance has to be regarded from quite a different perspective. Unknowingly, they head for the tragic events of 8 December 1982.
On the border of Surinam and French Guyana, indigenous Wayana territory is overrun by intruders. Illegal gold miners poison the river, missionaries repress indigenous identity, and even doctors with the best intentions leave marks that are often silently violent. The Wayana call these intruders Parasisi.
Recording a 24-hour period throughout every country in the world, we explore a greater diversity of perspectives than ever seen before on screen. We follow characters and events that evolve throughout the day, interspersed with expansive global montages that explore the progression of life from birth, to death, to birth again. In the end, despite unprecedented challenges and tragedies throughout the world, we are reminded that every day we are alive there is hope and a choice to see a better future together. Founded in 2008, it set out to explore our planet's identity and challenges in an attempt to answer the question: Who are we?
Reshna, a student in the Netherlands, visits her sick father in Suriname. When her family tells her what made her father ill and that it has to do with his past on plantation Mariënburg, she sets out to investigate. She finds out more and more and through flashbacks, the 1902 uprising is shown. Poor Hindustani and Javanese farmers were put to work on the plantation but were very poorly paid, and after a new Scottish director took office for the NHM (Dutch Trading Company) who abused and intimidated the farmers' wives, a decision to strike was made in July 1902. After the society used violence that left dozens dead, rebellion broke out.
A country where the former dictator is elected president, helped by young voters. Young journalist Ananta wants to know why she and her whole generation grew up without knowledge of the atrocities committed in the 1980's.
After years of serving in the army and drifting across the Amazon, Loeti yearns to go back to his land, to find his roots, and be amongst his people, the Aluku, the first Maroons of French Guiana and Suriname. One night, due to a crackdown on illegal gold mining, Loeti is forced to flee the site where he is working. Lost in the Amazon forest, he must use what is left of his childhood knowledge of the forest, to find his way back and combat the many deadly perils that lurk with every step. He is guided by the spirits, the animals, a compass, and his prayers. An intense reunion confronts Loeti with a changing world where old traditions and values are both challenged and influenced by the invading modern world. Loeti must deal with his past and grapple with what remains of the Aluku's ancient African customs by immersing himself in their magical world.
During the summer at grandma’s, Deon encounters a mysterious old woman who warns about a vampire-like creature called “asema.” He and his friend Jimmy embark on a quest to find out if it is real or just a tale.
A young Surinamese boy is recruited by an ex-con on parole to sell cocaine on behalf of a Surinamese mafioso who is trying to break his Mafia ties.
He is the last in the village that knows how to communicate with the ancestor spirits to keep the harmony and prevent misfortune. Since Amoksi is getting old, it is time to transfer his ancient know how to his son Michael.
From the local Surinamese tongue, “A Pasi Fu Romeo” can be translated into either “Romeo’s Road” or “Romeo’s Passion”. In either case, the double meaning is appropriate when describing the passionate road the film’s main subject, Romeo Koffymaga, has taken to become an emerging Maroon voice in the fight against logging transportation practices in Suriname.
The film shows the interior of Suriname. Central to this is the Marowijne River with its villages, and how the rich society of Creoles (Afro-Surinamese), Hindustani, Javanese, Chinese, Boeroes (descendants of Dutch farmers' immigrants), Indians and Maroons live together. Wide rivers flow through the jungles of Suriname, mostly peaceful, but sometimes furiously against the rocks. Indians hunt for fish, while Marons prove that they are masters of driving their narrow boats. The Surinamese are sensitive musicians when they play their flute, which is shaped like bamboo. The jungle is a vibrant sea of green and there are flowers of every color that you can imagine. This is the interior of Suriname. The majority of the population lives on the coast, where the capital Paramaribo is also situated, a city that is lively and contains many different population groups, with their own clothing and language.
The construction of the Brokopondo dam and hydro-electric plant in the 1960s gave an important boost to the economy of Surinam, a former Dutch colony. However it also caused the flooding of lands and villages of 5,000 Saramaccan Maroons. In 1994 filmmaker John Albert Jansen returned to the site of devastation, together with Surinam writer Dorus Vrede who was born in one of the drowned villages. In the documentary Brokopondo: Stories of a Drowned Land Jansen traces the origins of the Brokopondo project, the benefits to the economy of Surinam and the consequences of transmigration for the Maroon people, who after having lived a secluded life in the area since the eighteenth century, were forced to leave their traditional lands. Their rich hunting ground now at the bottom of Afobaka Lake. The building of the Brokopondo dam and the forced departure of the Saramaccan people is a powerful example of a clash between economic and cultural systems.
Ai Sranang, is a short montage film with a decidedly focused examination of Surinamese history and politics, since its independence from the Netherlands in 1975. The fragmented nature of montage film here, is a deliberate allusion to the complexities of diaspora as it stands in relation to identity. The tropes of in-between-ness and travel, are indeed an extension of this metaphor, yet they recall also ideas of leadership and government, specifically with the image of the “swinger” bus completely running amuck—if we think more globally of the events that have defined the Neoliberal era, the metaphor of the reckless driver extends far beyond the Surinamese context.