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Ready for a new perspective? Since 2023, Ammodo Docs has been presenting short documentaries about the work of groundbreaking scientists and artists. Through the lens of renowned Dutch filmmakers, you get to see how original thinkers address the challenges of today.
Ammodo Docs. Forward-thinking films.

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Words can both constrain and liberate our thinking. Classicist and philosopher Tazuko van Berkel uses Ancient Greek concepts to question how our society is structured today.

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The words we use every day shape the world around us and the relationships we form with others. This insight is the driving force behind the work of classicist and philosopher Tazuko van Berkel. Day and night, she delves into Ancient Greek texts in search of concepts that reveal a fundamentally different worldview. Take, for example, ξένος (xenos), which remarkably can mean guest, host and stranger all at once. What does such a radically different understanding of a word in the past tell us about our relationship to ‘the other’ today?
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This philosophical, contemplative short documentary follows Van Berkel on her quest. By uncovering the Ancient Greek worldview behind words such as economy, friendship, desire, trust or gratitude, she invites us to question – and perhaps even let go of – our habitual ways of thinking. In doing so, this award-winning scholar shows how the study of the classics is highly relevant to the present.

The World Behind Words

The World Behind Words - AmmodoDocs

A new installation by Ibrahim Mahama exposes the colonial ‘scars in the landscape’ in Northern Ghana – and inspires the local community.

In Dear Home of Scars, we see celebrated visual artist Ibrahim Mahama return to his hometown of Tamale in Northern Ghana to visit Red Clay Studio, a lively cultural centre and art space he founded, where he works on a new art installation involving old colonial railcars and the reconstruction of a stretch of track. During British rule of Ghana (1821-1957), the colonisers used trains to transport gold and other resources to the coast. Remnants of track now lie abandoned as silent reminders of this history of exploitation. They are ‘scars in the landscape’, in the words of Mahama.
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The project brings new energy and self-awareness to local residents. Meanwhile, Mahama reflects on his role as a sought-after artist and builder of local communities.

Dear Home of Scars

In a world driven by data, algorithms and AI, Tamar Sharon asks the question: does digitalisation work for us, or against us?

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From homework to grocery shopping and from healthcare to farm life – the human experience is changed drastically by the seemingly unstoppable onset of data, algorithms and AI.
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But is this an improvement? Ethicist Tamar Sharon researches how digitalisation changes our lives and how Big Tech embeds itself into ever more aspects of the public domain. Do we profit from this development, or does it primarily pad the pockets of Silicon Valley giants? Sharon advocates for regulation as well as a shift in thinking so that technology once again serves the public interest.

The Digital Dilemma

The Digital Dilemma - AmmodoDocs

Evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers takes us along on her epic quest to map the world’s fungi networks and understand their behaviour before it’s too late.

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Beneath our feet lies a mystery. A complex underground network of mycorrhizal fungi keeps our ecosystem alive by exchanging nutrients and carbon with almost all plants on Earth. Remarkably, no one knows exactly how these sophisticated and ancient systems operate, or how they are affected by climate change.
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The Underground Astronaut follows evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers, named one of the 2022 <a href="https://time.com/collection/time100-next-2022/6213878/toby-kiers/">TIME100 Next Innovators</a>, on her quest to map the world’s fungi networks and understand their behaviour before it’s too late. A fragrant and urgent journey underground. “No fungi, no future.”
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The Underground Astronaut

The Underground Astronaut | Watch the film about Toby Kiers

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In Three Acts, world-renowned opera director Pierre Audi unpacks the elements needed to open a world of fantasy and dreams: stage design, singers and audience. 

A celebration of his profound impact on the world of opera.



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Opera as an artform can be approached from various angles – the music, the singers, the stage design. Then there is the story, the emotion, the ideas. How does one combine these elements into an event which opens the door to fantasy and dreams?
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In Three Acts, world-renowned opera director Pierre Audi gives us a glimpse behind the scenes. As we watch him prepare for a rendition of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra in Tokyo (with stage design by visual artist Anish Kapoor), he shares his vision for the genre. According to Audi, the dramatic world on stage can bring us more in touch with contemporary issues than reading the news ever could. In the theatre you offer hope, he says. &#8216;You help people find a connection with themselves.&#8217;

Three Acts

Three Acts - AmmodoDocs

With pipettes, petri dishes, cardboard cups and a vacuum cleaner, Teun Bousema and his international team are fighting a formidable opponent in northern Uganda: the malaria parasite.

Teun Bousema operates at the forefront of the battle against malaria by researching human-to-mosquito infections.

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In the countryside in northern Uganda, armed with petri dishes, cardboard cups and a vacuum cleaner, internationally renowned malaria researcher Teun Bousema, along with PhD student Daniel Ayo and his team, seeks to unravel the mysterious life cycle of the malaria parasite. But the parasite is elusive, constantly mutating, which increases the threat of drug resistance. Is this mutated parasite more infectious to mosquitoes? Interplay depicts the daily reality of the tireless scientific battle against this formidable and multifaceted opponent.
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The malaria mosquito is born ‘clean’. Only after an infected blood meal and taking on various forms does the malaria parasite end up in the mosquito’s saliva, ready to claim a new human victim when the mosquito next bites. ‘It’s such a clever beast,’ says Bousema.

Interplay

Interplay - AmmodoDocs

In his multimedia operas, composer and director Michel van der Aa explores the big themes of our digitised age, contemplating existential questions in the border area between humans, machines and consciousness.

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How does technology transform humanity? Do we need a body to be human? In his multidisciplinary work, composer and director Michel van der Aa explores the big themes of our digitised age and contemplates existential questions in the border area between humans, machines and consciousness.
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Van der Aa re-energises the world of opera. Whether his VR goggles are on or off, he is always looking towards the future. In Between Realities shows him working on a new music theatre project, crossing the boundaries between remembering and forgetting, reality and unreality, life and death. Together with actors and avatars he forges new paths into the metaverse.
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In Between Realities

In Between Realities | Watch the film about Michel van der Aa

Using the laws of physics to build a revolutionary quantum internet before 2030? Stephanie Wehner believes it can be done. 

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In 1969 the first message was successfully sent on the internet, heralding a revolution in communication technology. Today, we are on the eve of a new revolution: that of the quantum internet, a fundamentally new way of communicating which relies on the laws of quantum mechanics and is inherently secure, inherently stable and incredibly efficient. This paves the way for applications that haven’t even been thought of yet.
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Quantum scientist and former hacker Stephanie Wehner is on a mission to develop the first operational quantum internet network before 2030. A daunting task, which some would even call crazy, but Wehner believes she can do it – not only by writing scientific articles, but simply by building it.
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Moonshot Mission

The Lebanese-Dutch artist Mounira Al Solh is confronted with the reality of violence in her home region – her engaged, playful and colourful art is the antidote. 

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How do you hold on to hope in times of violence and oppression? For visual artist Mounira Al Solh, born in Lebanon and based in the Netherlands, making art is her lifeline: a way to ‘resist the feeling that we are doomed.’ 
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Remarkably, this does not result in somber work. Dancing on the Ruins shows how Al Solh fearlessly builds a multifaceted and playfully activist body of work. Through textiles, ceramics, installations, video and paintings, the artist creates a colorful universe in which she blends personal stories with ancient myths and musical traditions. Her passion is fueled by a deep sense of urgency to offer optimism in a world full of injustice. 
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Dancing on the Ruins

Mounira Al Solh in Dancing on the Ruins - AmmodoDocs

Trailblazing neuroscientist Eveline Crone takes us on an animated journey into the brain as she champions the scientific value of intuition.

What is intuition? And how can gut feelings influence science? Known for her extensive research into adolescent brain development, neuroscientist Eveline Crone proposes that intuition is an aspect of the mind worth studying and embracing. In her scientific career, her own gut feelings have often led the way to new insights.
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In The Guts of the Neuroscientist, Crone takes us on a journey through an abstract landscape of morphing white lines as she contemplates the development and the future of neuroscience.
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The Guts of the Neuroscientist

The Guts of the Neuroscientist | Watch the film about Eveline Crone

Intrigued by their skilful way of rolling sailboats up and down the beach, visual artist Jonathas de Andrade attempts to capture the ingenious choreography of the traditional jangadeiros (sailors).

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Growing up, visual artist Jonathas de Andrade was fascinated by the jangadeiros (sailors) operating the traditional fishing boats in his hometown of Maceio, Brazil. In Northern Winds, we follow him as he visits this community of workers to film their craft (which now serves tourism) for a new artwork.
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Intrigued by their skilful way of rolling the sailboats up and down the beach, De Andrade tries to capture their ingenious choreography. Far from romanticising their way of life, however, he creates a testament to their precarious existence. In a country where unequal power structures are painfully and at times violently apparent.

Northern Winds

While rehearsing a play full of magic and trolls, Eline Arbo reflects on being a socially engaged
theater director in a turbulent world.

On her native soil just above the Arctic Circle, Norwegian-Dutch theater director Eline Arbo recalls her teenage spirit: “I was so bold, eager and looking for fun – I often think back on those days.” Today, she feels like a fighter trying with all her might to turn the tide in an alienating and unjust world.
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In The Storm Within, Arbo reflects on her role as a leading theater director as she rehearses for the new play Haugtussa, based on a Norwegian cycle of poems in which a young woman with magical powers seeks refuge in nature. With a dark and mysterious theatrical adaptation, Arbo aims to create a world never before seen on stage. In her view, the ominous mythical scenes of nineteenthcentury Haugtussa are profoundly contemporary.
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The Storm Within

The Storm Within - AmmodoDocs

Neuroscientist Jeroen Geurts feels like he is walking through a dark forest as he searches for the 
cause of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Neuroscientist Jeroen Geurts has dedicated his career to finding the cause of multiple sclerosis, a brain disease affecting millions. He hopes to find a cure within ten years.
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Unsure of what exactly he is looking for, his mission feels like wandering through a dark forest. Following his intuition, he searches in places others have neglected. Geurts says he is trying to find something which “language cannot yet grasp”, and emphasises the role of metaphors in this scientific field riddled with mysteries.
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The Mystery of MS

The Mystery of MS | Watch the documentary about Jeroen Geurts

Visual artist Aimée Zito Lema shows how art can function as a medium for memory work as she grapples with the violent parts of Argentinian history.

Although she didn’t personally experience the last Argentinian military junta (1976-1983), Argentinian-Dutch visual artist Aimée Zito Lema grew up in the shadow of the violent history that affected her country and family. At a young age, she grew fascinated with archival photographs of people who dared to risk their lives by resisting Jorge Videla’s military regime.
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On a visit to Buenos Aires, she includes her daughter in a performative art piece in which they embody the past and imagine a new future, showing the way art can function as a medium for memory work across countries and generations.

Dimension of Absence

Dimension of Absence | Watch the film about Aimée Zito Lema

Mountain hydrologist Walter Immerzeel ventures to high altitudes in the Himalayas to collect the 
precise meteorological data needed to predict the consequences of climate change.


To map the effects of climate change, mountain hydrologist Walter Immerzeel and his team venture to remote altitudes where other scientists do not go. From his tent base camp in the Himalayas, he collects data on precipitation, temperature, atmospheric pressure, solar irradiance, windspeed and more using over 200 measuring instruments.
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These data must be extremely accurate in order to reliably predict changes in the region’s water cycle – which is of crucial importance for the millions of people who live in the climate-sensitive areas downstream. In Moving Mountains, filmmaker and mountaineer Renko Douze follows Immerzeel on one of his mountain expeditions.

Moving Mountains

Moving Mountains | Watch the doc about Walter Immerzeel

Choreographic theatre artist Nicole Beutler combines a strong artistic vision with democratic participation as she evokes our planet’s demise on stage.

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In an ongoing series of theatre productions, Nicole Beutler explores how humans are inflicting irreversible damage on planet earth. What does our future look like? Her plays envision the necessary transformation of the position of humans on earth: the end of the Anthropocene takes centre stage. She describes this process as “going into the dark with your eyes wide open”.
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Beutler combines a strong artistic vision with room for joint decision-making. By inviting her team to bring their own visions to the table, she creates a collective work of art while challenging traditional conceptions of leadership.
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In the film, we see Nicole Beutler working on GINKGO or: 56 million years ago there were palm trees on the North Pole. A confrontational dance opera about the end of the world as we know it, and the first performance of her RITUALS OF TRANSFORMATION trilogy.
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Eyes Wide Open

Eyes Wide Open | Watch the documentary about Nicole Beutler

Christian Lange examines the role of the five senses in Islam – through studying smell, sight, hearing, taste and touch he reveals the richness of a world religion. 

Many people, including Muslims, have a uniform, static image of Islam. However, there is enormous diversity in how Islam is experienced across different regions and periods.
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In Five Senses, Islamic scholar and Arabist Christian Lange takes us on a journey through the multifaceted nature of Islam. He does so based on his research into the five senses: the windows through which we listen, see, hear, smell and feel the world. Strolling through the fragrant streets of Fez, Morocco, Lange shares his personal motivation for this unique, long-term project and his mission as a non-Muslim to bring East and West closer together. What is it like to step into another person’s world?
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Home

Watch the documentaries

Tazuko van Berkel
In The World Behind Words

Ibrahim Mahama
In Dear Home of Scars

Tamar Sharon
In The Digital Dilemma

Toby Kiers
In The Underground Astronaut

Pioneers

Watch the documentaries

Tazuko van BerkelIn The World Behind Words

Ibrahim MahamaIn Dear Home of Scars

Tamar Sharon In The Digital Dilemma

Toby KiersIn The Underground Astronaut

Pioneers

Tazuko van Berkel
In The World Behind Words

Ibrahim Mahama
In Dear Home of Scars

Tamar Sharon
In The Digital Dilemma

Toby Kiers
In The Underground Astronaut