Tag: screening

Android Dreams: AI Film Fest Amsterdam #2

Enter the future of cinema, where imagination and technology converge.

On Sunday, December 14th, 14:00–18:00, Droog becomes the stage for AI Film Fest Amsterdam by MadHatter Studio, showcasing visions of utopian and dystopian futures through AI storytelling.

PROGRAM:

AI Short Film Screening (14:00–15:00)

AI Film Workshop: A.I. Film Workshop (15:00–17:00)
A hands-on deep dive into prompting for images, video, and sound—learn practical workflows for your own AI-powered projects. With an emphasis on A.I. filmmaking tools from Google.

Panel Discussion (17:00–18:00)

Led by the MadHatter team consisting of Asad Ayub, this panel brings together voices from across the French & Dutch A.I. creative ecosystem to share inspirations, processes, and challenges in working with emerging tools.

Special guests include:

Roman Lapacz also known as Mr.Oan, is a French Art Director and A.I. filmmaker based in Amsterdam. He began his career in advertising, working in London, Turin and Paris where he discovered how much he loved shaping ideas into striking images. This passion naturally led him to the world of A.I. filmmaking, and he now write prompts, and stories.

Dennis Mohr is an award-winning documentary producer, director, Generative AI artist, and the founder of Public Pictures AI. His work explores the intersection of art, history, and artificial intelligence, and he is currently developing AI documentary recreations for broadcast television. Mohr’s films have been screened at prestigious venues such as TIFF, Hot Docs, and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, and have been honored by the Canadian Screen Awards among numerous other organizations.

Drinks & Networking 18:00-onwards
Ideas flow better over a drink—connect with fellow dreamers, makers, and future collaborators.

You can find our previous program here.

Old Heart (2025) Screening + Q&A

Award Winning Old Heart’s Amsterdam Premiere

Acclaimed feature Old Heart premieres in Amsterdam at Droog November 22 with costar Eva Doueiri joined by producer Joachim Fleury for a talkback.
This mixed race love story is a timely look elder independence immigration, American Army segregation during World War 2 and humanitarian relief during the Honger Winter of 1944-45. It is also the memorable screen debut of Amsterdam’s Doueiri who has won multiple festival awards for her performance as the romantic lead.
This timeless film has won three festival best feature honors along with multiple cast awards as well as honors for cinematography, editing and the original score.
Old Heart, English spoken subtitled in Dutch tells the story of black American GI Tom Johnson’s arrival in the Netherlands via the legendary Red Ball Express. He joins Dutch translator Sarah van Praag on a dangerous resistance smuggling mission from liberated Southern Netherlands to northern cities trapped behind Nazi lines during the Honger Winter of 1944-45.  They also fall in love.
Sixty years later Tom sabotages his Michigan family’s plan to move him to assisted living and disappears on a flight to the Netherlands, determined to reconnect with the love of his life. With his family in hot pursuit, Tom struggles to find the mysterious Sarah.
A tribute to black soldiers who fought the world’s greatest racist as part of a segregated American Army, the film also honors courageous Southern Dutch citizens who risked their lives to save people starving in the north.

Watch the Trailer Here

Program:

Doors Open – 13:00
Day Screening – 14:00
Doors Open – 18:00
Evening Screening – 19:00

What They Are Saying About Old Heart:

A Stunning Story, Compelling, Entertaining”- Chicago Tribune
“Fabulous … powerful performances from Jamelle Sargent as the young Tom and Eva Doueiri as the young Sarah.”
-Indie Film Library Festival, Amsterdam
Best Feature awards from Marina Del Rey Film Festival Los Angeles, Crown Point Festival in Chicago and East Village Festival in New York
Best Editor (Gene Gamache) Crown Point Festival
Best Actress Eva Doueiri (Sweden Film Awards, Crown Point Festival)
Best Actor Edward Gaines (Mkizhmithran International Film Festival)
Best Composer (Garth Neustadter) Auguri Film Festival, Naples, and Sicilian Film Awards

Simulacrum: Libido + The Beauty of Vice (1986)

The Freudian current of desire — libido — never moves in a straight line. It slips between language and flesh, between power and pleasure, between what we long for and what we repress. It animates creation, from Pygmalion’s sculpted obsession to the feminist undoing of the gaze. Sometimes, though, it is simply the pulse of skin, the warmth of wanting.

In Libido, Simulacrum asked artists and writers to trace these currents; to follow desire through its intellectual and bodily terrains, its contradictions, its delirium, its beauty. What forms emerge when pleasure resists containment? What art is born from longing?

To celebrate the launch, we invite you into a space saturated with sensation — a night bathed in red. The Red Space at Droog will pulse with lights, visuals, and music, immersing guests in a libidinal atmosphere. The screening of The Beauty of Vice (1986) will extend this exploration into the moving image, where desire flickers, frames dissolve, and vision becomes flesh.

Enter the red. Let the pulse take over.

The Beauty of Vice (1986) dir Živko Nikolić

In the mountains of Montenegro people have lived by strict and Draconian laws for centuries, almost untouched by modern civilization. However, a young couple are going to seek their fortune on the more liberal coast and there they find jobs in the nudist colony. Hundreds of naked bodies and atmosphere of joie d’vivre make the husband and wife question their rigid way of life.

PROGRAM

Doors Open: 18:45

DJ Set & Magazine Sale: 19:00

Film Starts 19:30

Carnaval Film Festival 2025

Join us at the Redspace @droog on Sunday, July 13, as we host one of the in-person screenings for the Carnaval Film Festival 2025 – a celebration of global Carnaval traditions through the lens of cinema.

From July 11–13, this first-ever edition in Amsterdam invites you on a journey through films that capture the spirit, sound, and soul of Carnaval. With a focus on joy, resistance, and cultural memory, the festival features stories from Brazil to Trinidad, from Curaçao to New Orleans, and right back home to the Netherlands and Belgium.

This Sunday screening is part of a dynamic program across Melkweg Cinema and Droog, alongside an expansive online selection of 50+ curated titles from across the globe.

Click here to view Melkweg’s program.

Program Sunday 13th July:

 

16:00 – First Screening

Main: Van Leek noar Aouw Steek (2024, 77′, NL) with introduction and Q&A with the director

Director: Marc van der Staak
Language: Dutch
Subtitles: Dutch

Short: Oilsjt op zen best (2024, 21′, Belgium)

Link to the event page

 

Van Leek noar Aouw Steek is een documentaire over de rijke geschiedenis en levendige tradities van carnaval in Klompengat, de carnavalsnaam van Best, een stad nabij Eindhoven in Noord-Brabant, de ultieme carnavalsprovincie van Nederland. De film neemt de kijker mee op een reis door het verleden en heden van dit unieke feest, en laat zien hoe carnaval zich heeft ontwikkeld en welke impact het heeft op de lokale gemeenschap.

Oilsjt op zen best – Een levendige ode aan Aalst en haar unieke karakter. Van het beroemde carnaval tot het dagelijkse leven in de stad: deze documentaire laat zien wat Aalst zo bijzonder maakt, met aandacht voor de tradities, de mensen en hun typische Aalsterse humor.

 

19:00 – Second Screening

Main: Kurason Di Un Pueblo (2021, 87′, Curaçao) with introduction and Q&A with the director

Director: Corine Djaoen-Genaro
Language: Dutch
Subtitles: English

Short: Bubbling Baby (2025, 18′, NL)

Link to the event page

 

Kurason Di Un Pueblo – Deze documentaire van Dolph van Stapele viert 50 jaar Carnaval op Curaçao. Met interviews, archiefbeelden en kleurrijke scènes volgt de film de voorbereidingen op de ‘Gran Marcha’ en toont hoe het feest de Curaçaose gemeenschap verbindt en haar identiteit versterkt.

Bubbling Baby – In deze korte documentaire onderzoekt Sharine Rijsenburg het ontstaan van bubbling: een energiek muziek- en dansgenre dat ontstond in de jaren ’80 onder Caribisch-Nederlandse jongeren. Met DJ Moortje als pionier groeide bubbling uit tot een unieke culturele uiting en een belangrijk symbool van identiteit. De film ging in première op IFFR 2025.

Caribbean Creativity is an Amsterdam-based non-profit dedicated to showcasing Caribbean and Caribbean-themed cinema in the Netherlands. Since 2008, they’ve hosted over 300 screenings and launched the Marley75 Film Festival and YardVibes, a streaming platform featuring 100+ films by Caribbean and African filmmakers. The Carnaval Film Festival marks their second major on-location film festival.

Africadelic is a non-profit championing African and diasporic cultural creativity and activism in the Netherlands. Best known for the Africadelic Festival around International Africa Day, the organization also curates year-round events. In 2025, they celebrate a decade of festivals and co-organize the inaugural Carnaval Film Festival.

Queer Cinema for Palestine Film Festival

Join us at Red Space, Droog’s new multimedia film theatre, for a powerful evening of Queer Cinema for Palestine; a program that brings together queer narratives and collective reflection in solidarity with Palestinian liberation.

Programma 17 Juni 2025

Screening Starts: 19:00

Screening Ends: 20:30

Film Program

Abgad Hawaz, Robin Riad, 1min, Canada (2024)

Audio: Arabic, English
Subtitles: N/A

Robin Riad’s short hand-drawn analogue film ostensibly teaches the pronunciation of the Arabic Alphabet in 28 easy steps. In actuality, the hand-drawn letters were printed using a laser jet printer onto the optical soundtrack of 16mm film, and what you hear in the film is the projector reading the letters, and interpreting them into sound. Riad uses humour to play with and sit with her mother tongue, offering a ‘false’ lesson in pronunciation. A response to a digital form of anti-Arab hate that Riad witnessed online coming out of the genocide in Gaza, Abgad Hawaz is a way for her to hold close to her language, culture, and roots. (Written by Tara Hakim for TQFF)

Out of Gaza, Seza Tiyara Selen, Jannis Osterburg, 9min, Germany (2025)

Audio: German, Arabic
Subtitles: English

A young Palestinian woman wants to flee from Gaza with her friends, hoping to find freedom in the West. As a talented engineer she makes escape possible, but doubts arise if it is the right decision to leave. When they cross the wall, they encounter a world they did not expect.

Blood Like Water, Dima Hamdan, 14min, Palestine (2023)

Audio: Arabic
Subtitles: English

Shadi embarks on a secret adventure, and accidentally drags his family into a trap where they only have two choices; either collaborate with the Israeli occupation, or be shamed and humiliated by their own people. Based on true stories.

a tangled web drowning in honey, Tara Hakim & Hannah Hull, 9min, Canada (2023)

Audio: English
Subtitles: English

a tangled web drowning in honey is an experiential and textural short film that invites viewers into the inner workings of a mind to ponder the ways in which we love and unlove ourselves.

Aliens in Beirut, Raghed Charabaty, 16min, Lebanon, Canada (2025)

Audio: Arabic, English
Subtitles: English

Aliens in Beirut blurs doc and fiction, exploring alienation and desire at home through scripted improv, wildlife cinematography and visual experimentation. Charabaty (who also stars in the film) reimagines events from their life leading up to the fateful 2020 Beirut Port Explosion. Returning to Beirut from Toronto, desperately in search of roots, Amir falls for a stranger by the sea. In the end, the explosion cares for nobody – leaving behind traces of unerasable desire.

Palcorecore, Dana Dawud, 8min, Internet footage from Palestine (2023)

Audio: Arabic and English
Subtitles: English

Dana Dawud’s Palcorecore (Palestine) is a hypnotic fusion of dance, archival footage, and internet-circulated videos that collapse past and present into a visceral portrait of Palestinian life. Opening with The Lovers Songs Band and excerpts from Jenin, Jenin (2003), the film assembles fleeting yet powerful images: flag-waving horseback riders, families at the beach, teenagers dancing in flames, and acts of resistance against occupation. Dawud’s deadpan narration—“I witness you witness me, we are martyrs together”—pulls the viewer into a shared act of witnessing. Through rhythmic disorder and movement, the film captures the resilience, rebellion, and everyday joys of Palestinian existence, focusing particularly on youth and women in their defiant assertion of life.

I never promised you a Jasmine Garden, Teyama AlKamli, 20min, Canada (2023)

Audio: Arabic, English
Subtitles: English

Tara, a queer Palestinian woman in her late 20s, attempts to suppress her internal emotional turbulence during a phone call with her best friend Sarab, with whom she is in love.

Don’t take my joy away, Omar Gabriel, 7min, Lebanon (2024)

Audio: Arabic
Subtitles: English

Set in Shatila, a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, two friends revel in the small joys of life until violence suddenly disrupts their world. Forced to flee, they embark on a dangerous journey of survival, confronting fear, chaos, and the stark realities around them. Along the way, they must choose between remaining in the shadows or seeking the light.

 

Weaving Workshop & Queer Film Screening

Together with The Walking with Pride Project, join us for a unique participatory art project where community, craft, and queer storytelling come together.

In this series of weaving workshops, you will learn how to create fabric squares using any materials of their your choice. Each square becomes a canvas for a personal story, with a special focus on voices from queer communities and allies.

Guided by a student facilitator and introduced by university professor, each session blends hands-on making with thoughtful reflection by turning fabric into a medium for memory.

The workshop is paired with a film screening where you can weave while watching a queer film  screening.

Fabric and safety pins will be provided.

The Walking with Pride Project is a collaborative, transnational artwork that centers storytelling through textile and text. The art activism, led by international students in the Netherlands, crafts community unbound by space or place to resist and denounce the persecution of queer people globally.

The art piece is a rag-rug that reflects and evokes solidarity. Participants braid a rectangle from chosen fabrics and are invited to attach a written text reflecting on the experience. The final tapestry is a visual archive that queers storytelling and testifies to the power of art and community to resist repression, restore dignity, and celebrate humanity. It will feature in exhibitions internationally and on the Walking With pride website digitally.

Program:

Sunday 15 June 2025

16:00 – 17:00 Weaving Workshop

17:00 – 18:30 Film Screening & Weaving

18:30 – 19:00 Post Event Drinks & Hangout