The Empire Project

Has colonization brought only misery? Were there consequences that nobody could have predicted? With these questions in mind, the Dutch-American filmmaking duo of Eline Jongsma and Kel O'Neill traveled to seven former Dutch colonies. In 2010 and 2011, they visited four former Dutch East India Company colonies: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and South Africa. And in 2012, they added three Dutch West India Company colonies to that list: Brazil, Suriname and Ghana. In the resulting video installation Empire, one person from each of the three countries has his or her say, and each of them has a different take on the colonial era. Photographer Isaac Vanderpuije comes from a privileged family who made good money trading Ghanaian slaves. James Libretto is a descendant of the slaves, and he's still digging for gold in Suriname. Rayanne Reinholz's ancestors immigrated to Brazil when slavery was abolished. They were among the many low-paid guest workers from the homeland who had to take over the heavy work. However different their backgrounds may be, all three of them share a need to give colonial history a place in their lives. Jongma and O'Neill underline this by projecting them next to each other on three screens. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)