CTM Docs

Huelva, Spain, an isolated region lost in time. The grass, the sand and the sky are the same that those foreigners saw in the spring of 1895, when they crossed the sea from a distant country to mark the unspoiled terrain and extract its wealth, when the tower was new, when people could climb to the top of the highest dune and imagine that the city of Tartessos was still there, in the distance, almost invisible in the morning brume.

‘De Verrekijker’ primary school in Katwijk provides education for some 150 children from the local reception centre for refugees. The inspired teachers’ ultimate challenge is to offer these children a safe haven and make their school days as ordinary as possible. At first glance, De Verrekijker looks like a normal Dutch primary school. However, the boys and girls are children of rejected asylum seekers. Headmaster Toon and the teachers do all they can to give them the best education. Yet each morning they worry if any pupil has been forced to leave the country. After a series of deportations it becomes increasingly difficult to provide the children with a safe haven. The situation escalates when a group of Syrian boys fleeing war arrive at the school.

HIV has been a chronic disease since the 1990s; it is no longer lethal. Still, the social stigma and the taboo the affliction is under persist. This is also experienced by two women in Amsterdam and Groningen. They are now brave enough to say they are HIV positive, despite all unshakable prejudices against women with HIV. This moving documentary shows what it is like to live with the dreaded disease in present-day society.

With her legendary "Blond Ambition Tour" in 1990, Madonna once again shocked the world, simulating masturbation on stage, among other provocations. At the height of her fame, the star had also taken a stand for the rights of homosexuals, hard hit by AIDS and discrimination. The subject touched her personally: six of the seven dancers who surrounded her on stage at the time were gay. By tracing the careers of these artists before, during and after this memorable tour, this documentary sheds new light on the history of the LGBT community in the United States. Reunited for the first time twenty-five years later, these dancers tell their respective stories, between pride and the difficulty of coming out, and evoke their relationship with Madonna with a sometimes bittersweet nostalgia.

Bob Rugurika is the director of Radio Publique Africaine (RPA), the most popular independent radio station in Burundi. As an investigative journalist he is also a forerunner of the fight for freedom of expression in his country, willing to risk his life to expose the truth. With the RPA, he keeps on challenging the regime and becomes its enemy number one. Will Bob succeed in keeping the freedom of press, while independent media are being silenced and his life and family are being threatened?