ABOUT US
2025
This Annual Report 2025 provides an overview of the main activities and achievements of Document Our History Now. Both this report and our Financial Report 2025 are available on our website.
7th LGBTIQ+ Movie Night at the Embassy of the Netherlands, Bangkok, Thailand
On 13 February 2025, we co-organized the 7th LGBTIQ+ Movie Night, hosted by the Dutch Ambassador in Bangkok. Around 300 people attended the event.
Programme
Seahorse Parents — documentary
Miriam Guttmann | 2023 | 10 min. | English subtitles | The Netherlands
Four (expectant) trans fathers talk about their experiences of being pregnant with their own child.
DAD — documentary film
Students of Bangkok University | 2024 | 34 min. | English subtitles | Thailand
At the 2024 LGBTIQ+ Movie Night, we screened the short version of DAD. Following the screening, we invited the students to further develop the film and produce a 34-minute version.
DAD tells the heartfelt story of Pop Bandit, a middle-aged man who finds himself caught between a promise he made to his father on his deathbed—to start a family—and his own homosexuality. Defying societal norms, Pop and his wife, Mae Payong, embark on a transformative journey filled with challenges and unexpected joys.
When Pop’s mother expresses her wish for grandchildren, they decide to have children, and twins May and Mine are born. Despite societal judgement, the family’s unwavering support for Pop becomes a source of strength. The film is a poignant story of acceptance, resilience, and the unconventional journey of a rainbow family, bound together by love.
Old Narcissus — film
Tsuyoshi Shóji | 2023 | 110 min. | English subtitles | Japan
Seventy-four-year-old Yamazaki has never loved anyone but himself. An eccentric and proud gay man, he meets Leo, a young and lonely sex worker, and for the first time in his long and tumultuous life falls in love with another person. Through this relationship, he finally comes to terms with his past and begins to build the relationships with friends and family that he failed to establish in his youth. A touching, unusual and beautifully filmed modern fable.
Rainbow Movie Night at Institut Français, Phnom Penh, Cambodia — 10 February 2025
The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Document Our History Now co-organized the second Rainbow Movie Night in Phnom Penh.
Programme
- Two short films from the Netherlands
- Lotus Sports Club — documentary, Cambodia
- Q&A with director Vanna Hem
- Break with drinks and food
- Old Narcissus — fiction film, Japan
- Closing remarks and drinks
Photography Project in Indonesia: How Must I Live? by Ryan Andrew
In October 2024, we met Ryan Andrew in Jakarta, Indonesia. We were impressed by his photography project How Must I Live? and decided to support it.
Ryan met several Queer people living in different parts of Indonesia. He spent time with them, sharing aspects of their daily lives. Through these encounters, Ryan explored which aspects of their sexual and/or gender identities resonated with his own experiences.
His interactions with other Queer people became a way of exploring his own identity, resulting in a photography series expressed through his personal photographic language. The results have also been presented as a video production.
In autumn 2025, the project resulted in solo exhibitions in Yogyakarta and Jakarta, Indonesia.
Photography Projects in Thailand
In cooperation with Kars Tuinder of Photohostel & Photocafe in Bangkok, we supported two Queer photography projects in Thailand.
From seven applications, we also selected Khant Khant, a photographer from Myanmar, who documented Queer people who had fled Myanmar and were living in a refugee camp in northwestern Thailand.
Queer Burmese Living on the Thai Border by Khant Khant
When Myanmar’s military staged a coup in 2021, many people fled across the border into Thailand. Among them were Burmese LGBTIQ+ people, a community that was already marginalized at home and became further endangered by the violence of the military junta.
Life in exile is not easy. Many face rejection from their families, discrimination in society, and harmful stereotypes reinforced by Burmese films and popular culture. On top of this, they carry the weight of traditional beliefs—the idea, passed down through generations, that being LGBTIQ+ is unnatural and shameful. While attitudes are slowly changing, these conservative views continue to influence public opinion.
This project documents the lives of Burmese LGBTIQ+ people now living in Mae Sot, Thailand. Beyond their struggle for survival, it seeks to show how they live with dignity and beauty, as ordinary people striving to be accepted for who they are.
The MASC Archive: Intimacy of Thai Tomboys by MIN
While attending an all-girls Christian school in Bangkok, MIN witnessed first-hand a vibrant culture of tomboys—known locally as “toms”—flourishing within the school’s strict and conservative environment.
Yet toms remain underrepresented in global LGBTIQ+ narratives and are often misunderstood as women who simply want to appear more masculine. Like any identity on the LGBTIQ+ spectrum, the tomboy identity encompasses unique and nuanced layers. This project brings some of these layers to light, primarily through medium-format film photography.
MIN documented a group of masc-presenting figures wearing traditional Thai sarongs in a setting inspired by a historic pre-bathing ritual, when women would gather to bathe together. In this intimate setting, fashion as a conventional marker of gender is muted, allowing identity to emerge through bare skin, subtle gestures, and unspoken expressions in the eyes.
First DOHN Magazine
At the beginning of 2026, we expect to publish the first DOHN Magazine, focusing on the photography projects we have supported over the past 13 years.
During 2025, we reconnected with the photographers involved, who are now living in seven different countries. We collected the necessary photographs and wrote the accompanying texts. Graphic designer Ruud Hiel invested considerable time and effort in preparing the magazine for printing by the end of 2025.
We are very pleased to present this new publication to our sponsors, the photographers themselves, and our wider network in 2026. The first copy will be presented to Remco van Wijngaarden, Ambassador of the Netherlands, during the 8th edition of the LGBTIQ+ Movie Night at the Dutch Embassy in February 2026.
Communication: Website & Newsletter
In 2025, we added several new pages to our website. By the end of the year, our newsletter had around 700 subscribers. We sent four newsletters during the year, featuring updates on new productions and invitations to events. For private individuals, subscribing and unsubscribing is easy.
Friends and Sponsors
In 2025, our sponsors included the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Embassy of the Netherlands in Bangkok.
We would also like to thank NZ Sauna, Zielhuis Uitvaart, De Trut-fonds, Tim Meijerink-fonds, and our many private sponsors for their support.
Our People
Board of Directors in 2025
- Riemer Knoop, Chair
- Hugo Bongers, Treasurer
- Ben Hekkema, Secretary
Robert Witlox, our coordinator, dedicated substantial time to the organization, including production support, communications, events, fundraising, and expanding our network in Southeast Asia. As a freelancer, he received no remuneration for this work.
He also organized and moderated the LGBTIQ+ Movie Nights, supported through a project grant.
The Board of Directors of Document Our History Now
