Backlight

The Tax Free Tour

25-mrt-2013 18:05:43

"Where do multinationals pay taxes and how much?" Gaining insight from international tax experts, Backlight director Marije Meerman ('Quants' & 'Money & Speed'), takes a look at tax havens, the people who live there and the routes along which tax is avoided globally.

Money & Speed: Inside the Black Box

20-mrt-2013 17:16:10

Money & Speed: Inside the Black Box is a thriller based on actual events that takes you to the heart of our automated world. Based on interviews with those directly involved and data visualizations up to the millisecond, it reconstructs the flash crash of May 6th 2010: the fastest and deepest U.S. stock market plunge ever.

The Cleantech Future

20-mrt-2013 17:13:02

What if we could live in a clean world? A world in which energy would be 100% renewable, water no longer polluted, transportation truly green and production methods clean and regenerative? There will be such a world. In this documentary VPRO Backlight explores the unprecedented possibilities of a new industrial revolution: Cleantech.

The Food Speculator

20-mrt-2013 17:09:19

Assuming the role of a speculator, director Kees Brouwer tries to find out whether he is merely taking advantage of the opportunity offered to investors by the food scarcity, or that, through this abstract world of financial products, he is drastically interfering in poor people's lives.

Ten years of Backlight (Tegenlicht) in a globalising world

27-nov-2012 17:32:02

Anthe de Weerd

A group of international Erasmus Mundus students visited Backlight in Hilversum to see how changing views on globalisation have been visualised in our documentaries in the past ten years.

Webspecial: Rebecca MacKinnon

25-mei-2012 14:55:00

Jip Mennema and Ramiro Gomes Monteiro

In her ongoing struggle to democratize the Internet Rebecca MacKinnon has earned her stripes. As a former CNN Bureau Chief and current director of Global Voices, she has undertaken various efforts to lift the worlds Internet users from virtual serfdom to citizenship. In this interview, MacKinnon talks to us about the importance of citizen media, internet surveillance in China and Russia and the implications of new laws that may restrict Internet freedom.

Goldman Sachs: the interview

18-feb-2012 16:00:00

Jip Mennema

Backlight recorded a telephone interview with Goldman Sachs PR chief Lucas van Praag. It caught the attention of the outside world - more specifically, the New York Times.

Holland Gets Talent

10-nov-2011 0:00:00

Sarah Greaves

Tegenlicht follows two young entrepreneurs to Shanghai where they have spotted a gap in the market and started an agency to select highly promising students in Shanghai for a research position in the Netherlands.

Aftermath of a crisis

19-sep-2011 0:00:00

Shortly after the beginning of the financial crisis of 2008 sociologist Manuel Castells gathered a small group of international topintellectuals to ponder the crisis. While the crisis expanded, Castells named his group 'The Aftermath Network', a reference to the new world which according to him will emerge from the ashes of the crisis.

California Dreaming

8-nov-2010 0:00:00

California is a strong brand, the state of new beginnings, dreams and movie stars, of surfers and a wonderful climate. But the Golden State is bankrupt and the city of Los Angeles is running out of cash. Public services are being cut and unemployment keeps rising. At the same time, optimism, entrepreneurship and the belief in the power of America are stronger than ever.

Tony Judt's Last Will

11-okt-2010 0:00:00

On August 6 2010 Tony Judt passed away at 62 due to the complications of the neuro-muscular disease ALS. Judt was a historian specializing in post-war Europe. But above all he was a great thinker about the political landscape we inhabit. His last will was the lecture 'What is Living and What is Dead in Social Democracy', in the fall of 2009 in New York.

Debt and Redemption

4-okt-2010 0:00:00

All over Europe, governments dressed up their accounts by buying exotic financial products from major investment banks. Then came the crash. Debt and Redemption shows how local authorities in Italy are struggling with the disastrous aftermath of their deals.

Caracas the informal city

19-mei-2010 0:00:00

In this documentary Rob Schröder portraits the created self-built constructions of six million inhabitants who live in the informal conditions of the barrios in Caracas.

After Democracy

10-mei-2010 0:00:00

Can democracy still be saved? Can we address the shortcomings of representative democracy - failing political parties, increasing distrust of government - within the current system or are we set to embark on a journey across a border where nobody ever dared to go? Should we explore a new political model in order to overcome the current multicrises? In After Democracy this urgent question is addressed by Fareed Zakaria, John Keane, Hilary Wainwright, William Dobson and Cheng Li.

Time for Change

22-feb-2010 0:00:00

Meet the new revolutionaries of the Do-It-Yourself cultures in Barcelona, Tallin and Jakarta. They are modern day heroes. They do not wait for political parties or institutions to change their world; they simply do it themselves, by creating new local currencies, by working in social networks or by simply robbing the banks and redistributing their money

Quants > George Dyson

Extra videos

8-feb-2010 0:00:00

'Historian among futurists'

Quants. The alchemists of Wall Street

8-feb-2010 0:00:00

Quants are the math wizards and computer programmers in the engine room of our global financial system who designed the financial products that almost crashed Wall st.

Exit Afghanistan

18-jan-2010 0:00:00

Documentary by Mariusz Pilis and Olaf Oudheusden in which warlords and diplomats question what the West actually wants in Afghanistan.

Living in the End Times According to Slavoj Zizek

11-jan-2010 0:00:00

Backlight confronts Slavoj Zizek, with fragments from upcoming broadcasts and asks him to describe the agenda for 2010.

I am Gurgaon

28-sep-2009 0:00:00

The shining facades of Gurgaon, a satellite city of New Delhi, are symbols of Indias unparalleled economic growth. Gurgaon was built at the turn of this century by the largest project developers in the world. A village 15 years ago, has now grown into a city of 1,4 million inhabitants, but with little or no infrastructure. How viable is this new type of city?