ABOUT US
2020 and 2021
This Annual Report tells you about the main achievements of Document Our History Now in 2020 and 2021. This Annual Report and our Financial Reports 2020 and 2021 are available on our website.
3RD Documentary Night at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Bangkok.
On 14th February 2020 we co-organized the 3rd LGBTIQ+ Documentary night, hosted by the Ambassador of Kingdom of the Netherlands and programmed and moderated by Document Our History Now. There were 250 people present, a full house.
We got very positive reactions about the program and the speakers Tanwarin Sukkhapisit (Thailand’s first transgender Member of parliament and film producer) and Sanchai Chotirosseranee (Deputy Director at the Thais Film Archive).
Diversity in Family Life in Rural Cambodia
Photographer Prum Ero and Sa Sa Art Projects (Phnom Penh) made photos of LGBTI family life in rural Cambodia, in all its beautiful diversity. Prum Ero visited 7 villages/cities and met with 7 families. This resulted in a great photography serie, which can be seen as a Power Point video on our website.
The sets of photos will be used by RoCK (Cambodia’s leading LGBTI organization), illustrating and personalizing their plea for legal marriage equality.
This project is made possible with the support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the EU-mission and the U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
And then … Covid
Like everyone else in the world, we had to cancel or postpone the activities we had planned for 2020, then take them up again, then postpone them again, and so on, also for a big part of 2021.
The planned December 2020 exhibition of the photography series Diversity in Family Life in Rural Cambodiaat Friends Future Factory in Phnom Penh had to be cancelled last minute because of Covid-19 restrictions. As a consequence, the LGBTI+ Documentaries Night – planned to have been held on the exhibition’s opening night – was cancelled as well.
Love and Other Matters is now part of Myanmar’s national cultural heritage
In 2015, together with the Yangon Film School and Colors Rainbow, we produced Love & Other Matters (Directed by su Su Hlaing). This highly appreciated and often screened documentary introduces seven very different LGBTIQ+ people living in Myanmar. It is a warm and humorous documentary about the most human aspect we all share: the desire to love and be loved and accepted.
The Yangon Film School celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2020. Over the years they have produced an impressive number of films: over 100! Myanmar’s cinema celebrated its 100th year and the National Library of Myanmar opened the doors to its new location in April 2020.
In their aim to promote filmmaking education and documentaries about Myanmar, the Yangon Film School has donated its entire collection to the Audio-Visual section of the renewed National Library of Myanmar. Love and Other Matters is now part of Myanmar’s cultural heritage and accessible to the public for generations to come. That brings a big smile in our faces: it fulfills one of the goals of Document Our History Now.
And then, the situation changed drastic in Myanmar. We are very concerned about our friends in countries where the situation is very dire, like in Myanmar. Social movements and LGBTI organizations have to go back in the closet for safety reasons. Our love goes out to our friends in Myanmar and we help where we can.
Documentary Lotus Sports Club, Cambodia
The documentary Lotus Sports Club (Cambodia) got finished by the end of 2021. It is produced in high quality and great attention has been paid to the color and sound quality. The film looks beautiful on the big screen, great filming work of Vanna Hem. The story of the football team comes alive and will capture hearts around the world. Many thanks to various persons who contributed pro bono to the post production and many thanks to Tom Colognese, co-producer in this project, for his vision and endurance.
In December 2021, Lotus Sports Club was submitted to approximately 10 major international film festivals. Fingers crossed! Later, in the summer of 2022, we will bring it to Cambodia and by then we will also show it to all our sponsors in Amsterdam.
Nice to let you know: the Lotus Sports Club football team has been invited to participate at the Gay Games in Hong Kong (2023). The team is exited to participate!
Communication: website and newsletter
Over the course of 2020 and 2021, we created a few new webpages on our website.
The mailing list of our Newsletter had about 750 mail addresses by the end of 2021. This group of interested people received 6 newsletters during 2020 and 2021. We send out a newsletter every time a new production is posted on our website or when we want to invite for one of our events. Private individuals can easily subscribe to or unsubscribe for the newsletter.
Friends and sponsors of Document Our History Now
Over the course of 2020 and 2021, our sponsors included the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NZ Sauna, Zielhuis Uitvaart, the US Embassy and the EU mission (both in Phnom Penh Cambodia) as well as our private sponsors.
Our people
The Board of Directors in 2020 and 2021 consisted of Riemer Knoop (chair), Hugo Bongers (treasurer) and Ben Hekkema (secretary).
In those years, our coordinator Robert Witlox invested a substantial amount of time in supporting the organization, its productions, the communication, the presentation event, but also in finding sponsors and expanding our network in Southeast Asia. For a small percentage of those hours he received compensation as a freelancer. In addition, he carried out the LGBTI Documentary Events (organization and moderation), for which DOHN received project grants.
Amsterdam, May 2022, The Board of Directors of Document Our History Now.
