Prospektor
Eefje Blankevoort, Laura Verduijn en Vera Bachrach
Utrechtsedwarsstraat 95 | 1017 WD Amsterdam
eefje@prospektor.nl | +31 624607966
laura@prospektor.nl | +31 647146564
vera@prospektor.nl | +31 6 20814307
PROSPEKTOR is a documentary production agency founded by Eefje Blankevoort & Arnold van Bruggen. Today, Prospektor is run bij Eefje, Laura Verduijn (producer & business manager) and Vera Bachrach (producer). We make (interactive) documentaries but also podcasts, books, exhibitions and often everything at the same time. We are interested in stories that bring about change, stories that can tip someone’s perspective. Not from black to white or vice versa, but in a more layered and complex way, using stories that can accommodate different voices. Stories that can counter uninformed cynicism.
Shadow Game
Director: Eefje Blankevoort, Els van Driel
Research: Eefje Blankevoort, Els van Driel, Al Qaisi
DOP: Ton Peters NSC
Country: NL
Broadcaster: KRO-NCRV
Genre: Documentary
Duration: documentary: 89 min, short docs: 4x 30 mins.
Edit: Patrick Schonewille (film), Francesco Indaco (short docs)
Co-producer: Witfilm (feature length documentary)
Status: Completed
Sort: This transmedia project comprises a feature length documentary (Witfilm), an online series of follow-up short docs, an adventure game, a photo series, exhibition and an impact campaign.
Release: The project launched Spring 2021. The film has won several international prizes, including Prix Europa and Gouden Kalf 2021 and is touring festivals and other places throughout Europe for screenings and discussions. One of the short docs, Jano & Shiro, A Brother’s Journey premiered at IDFA 2020 in the Kids&Docs competition.
"The truck game, the train game, the taxi game", Sajid (from Afghanistan, aged 15) lists the ‘games’ he had to complete to get into Europe. Especially the ‘pedestrian game’: walking, lots and lots of walking. ‘The Game’ is the bitterly ironic term for crossing borders that has become commonplace among refugees.
Every day in Europe, children travelling alone try to cross life-endangering borders in search of safety and a better life. They travel through a shadow world that we do not know, full of minefields, bears, fast-flowing rivers, smugglers and border guards. These teenagers risk their lives to make the crossing, which they call ‘the game’. In the meantime, they are growing up fast. In Shadow Game we meet some of these young refugees. They guide us through the dark side of Europe.
Jano (left) and Shiro (right) testing hairspray to keep off wild animals in the woods.
The Gown and the Shipwreck
Director: Arnold van Bruggen
DOP: Thomas Roebers
Edit: Maurik de Ridder
Country: NL
Co-producer: NTR
Status: Starting production
Release: late 2022
Sort: Documentary series
Duration: 3 x 50 mins
Genre: Documentary
An archaeological world find, a beautiful 17th century gown, has been surfaced by local amateur divers in Texel waters. The gown offers insights in a new history of the 17th century, a history of a Europe already united through trade and movement of people. While the gown may add a new chapter to Europeans and Dutch history, under the microscope the gown is rapidly falling apart. Who owns the dress? Can it even be exhibited? Over time, the great cultural and historical importance of this discovery threatens to be lost. Will those involved ultimately be willing to transcend their differences?
The 17th century gown found on a shipwreck near Texel.