Me

This is Bram Vergeer, born November 1980 and grown up in the beautiful commuter city of Zoetermeer. I’m often busy with many things at the same time, filmmaking always being priority number one. I'm an allround filmmaker meaning I can do all steps in a filmproject by myself: concept development, scenario writing, camera, sound, directing, editing and product design of a finalized project. Apart from doing freelance filmprojects all year round I work as a tourleader for the Dutch tour agencies Koning Aap and Shoestring. I'm being sent to different parts of the world to guide groups of Dutch tourist around. Africa and Central America are my main destinations. When in The Netherlands and not busy with films I make some extra money making appointments for the pharmaceutical industry at Medcall.

Travels

Travelling has been a major pastime since I finished secondary school in 1999. My first trip was 3 months crossing through Australia with some friends and an old Ford Transit '74. There I got the travel virus and started backpacking. I did long trips by myself through Asia, South America, Africa and Europe. After finishing my studies I more or less made travelling my job by doing filmprojects abroad and working as a part-time tourleader. By now I have visited over 60 countries around the globe, for a map of all my travels click here.

Studies

In the year 2006 I finished my masters in Creative Development at the Professional School of the Arts Utrecht. I wrote my final thesis about the way Dutch NGO's present themselves on the Internet. As a case study for my research I worked in developing the website of the Dutch NGO IBISS. They help street kids in Rio de Janeiro. I did my bachelor in Media and Culture (formerly Film and Television Science) at the University of Amsterdam, with a minor in Development Studies. A year of my bachelor I followed in Spain at the University of Alcala de Henares near Madrid as part of the Erasmus Exchange programme. In the  last year of my bachelor I did a six month internship  at the PR department of the Dutch NGO Fairfood in Amsterdam.  While studying in The Netherlands I lived most of the time in Amsterdam. I've done many different student jobs on the side: bartending at Cafe De Koophandel, receptionist at Hotel Kap, call agent at Motivaction and wardrobe manager at the Van Gogh Museum.

Films

At the end of my studies I got quite sick of only reading about film without even touching a camera myself. I decided to make a movie based on a script written by my friend Raymond Verhoef and based on a short story by Ethan Coen. This eventually resulted in the short feature film Destiny, which I made with a big group of friends and volunteer actors. It has shown in different theatres in Holland and on various film festivals. Shortly after the release we made up a plan to make a series of short films where we follow famous and infamous Dutch rap artists in the neighbourhood where they live. The series is called Waar Ik Woon and can be seen at Holland's biggest urban website State Magazine.

My first international filmproject took place in the summer of 2006. My friend and me were asked to make a documentary film about the hiphopscene on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. The film is called Zenji Flava. It premiered at Film by the Sea 2006 and received many positive reviews. The film has been shown also on the Sauti Sa Busara festival in Zanzibar, the Wapi meetings in Nairobi and MTV's Black Soil in Amsterdam and The Hague.

This stimulated me to continue filming and I decided to move to Nairobi. I started the project New Voices and found Oxfam Novib willing to sponsor it. The film talks about the role of gender within hiphop and the way hiphop reaches groups of people who are normally hard to reach. New Voices at the moment is being used in secondary schools as an addition to the Africa Zeeland project.

After this I started working on the film 7 years, a documentary about homosexuality in Kenya. It drew a lot of attention in Holland and eventually I received support from Youth Incentives, Hivos and NCDO. 7 years premièred at the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival in the British Film Institute in the beginning of 2008. The film has been broadcasted by the station MVS and was programmed at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. It has also been screened at over 20 (film)festivals across the world, from Cape Town to Turin and from New York to Bilbao. I was invited to some of these festivals to present the film. New requests for 7 years keep on coming in so the film will be seen at festivals probably the next year as well. In North America (Mexico, USA and Canada) the film is being distributed by Frameline, a distributor of LGBT Media. More Information about the film and coming screenings an be found here.

During my stay in Nairobi I also worked on different short films for the website Inside Africa which was founded by my friend Tim Metz. These 15 films can now be seen on my YouTube account, together with a short documentary about the Zanzibar International Film Festival 2007, which I made for Hivos.              

In September 2007 I founded the InsideOut Foundation together with Tim Metz. The aim of the foundation was to create a broader image of countries that are usually depicted in a very limited way by the common media. We try to initiate filmprojects and support filmmakers across the world. In January 2008 4 young Dutch filmmakers went to Ghana to make the documentary Black Stars, about the Africa Cup in Ghana. They didn't have any experience in filmmaking so we gave then the basic preparations and borrowed them our camera. We also applied for funds and got sponsorship from the Amsterdam Art Foundation. The film premièred at the Africa in the Picture Filmfestival in Amsterdam and is now being promoted worldwide.

Through the foundation I got my first big assignment from the Dutch NGO Cordaid. For their annual Vastenaktie (Lenten campaign) I was asked to produce a DVD with short films for primary school children in The Netherlands. The films are set in Malawi and talk about the lives of children there and the projects Vastenaktie sponsors. The project was a big success and the DVD will be marketed in February 2010. Approximately 1500 schools will buy the DVD and about 300.000 people will see the videos. For the Cordaid campaign Buzz The World I went to El Salvador in April 2009, again to make films about children there. I made 9 short portraits of children and they will be shown to Dutch primary school students in the age of 12 to 16.

Cordaid produces the Vastenaktie DVD every year. and due to  the effective approach to primary school children it's popularity is still growing. Each year the DVD is set in another country  where Cordaid projects take place. In December 2009 I went to the The Philippines to shoot material for the next campaign. The DVD with films for children will be marketed in February 2011, and just like last year I was asked to edit a documentary for adults with the same material as well. The documentary is already being used in the Vastenaktie campaign.

Right now I'm working as a freelance filmmaker mainly for Cordaid, and doing other film related jobs on the side as well.  In the near future I will try to expand my work and look for new interesting film projects. Apart from that I’m planning to again start developing my own idea’s for documentaries into a project and look for funds. A film about homosexuality in Morocco is still high on my priority list.

Fixing

Apart from filmmaking and tourguiding I work as a fixer. When foreign film crews visit The Netherlands I guide them around and bring them wherever they want to go. Apart from guidance and transportation I offer interpretation and personal connections as a service. I have been working as a fixer on shoots for Discovery Channels Globe Trekker and the BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are?. I've also directed journalists for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF and the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation NHK on various shoots for short news items throughout the country. I find fixing a nice way of combining my work as a filmmaker with tourguiding and thereby using my language skills.

Skills

I’m an all-round filmmaker, which means I can do all stages in a film project by myself. I can work and travel independently and I have my own equipment. On my travels and while living abroad I picked up quiet some different languages. I'm fluent in Dutch, English and Spanish and I can get by pretty easy in Italian, French and German.

Equipment

I have my own camera and editing equipment which comes out handy in realizing filmprojects all by myself. I shoot with my Sony HDR-HC1e High Definition Camera with a Rode VideoMic. I edit on my Imac 20 inch, 2.4 Ghz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD using Final Cut Pro Studio.

Press

In september 2006 I was interviewed by the local Dutch newspaper PCZ about the premiere of my film Zenji Flava on the Film by the Sea festival in Vlissingen. You can read the article here.

In march 2008 I was interviewed by the free daily Dutch magazine De Pers. The interview was about the film Black Stars we coproduced with the InsideOut Foundation and a new fast way of subsidising artistic projects by young people. You can read the article here.

In April 2009 I was interviewed by the Dutch Muslim Broadcasting Corporation about my work as a filmmaker. You can listen to the interview right here.

In January 2010 I worked on the Holiday Fair (Vakantiebeurs) in Utrecht promoting the travel organizations I'm tourguiding for. I was interviewed by Radio Netherlands Worldwide (Wereldomroep) about tourism in underdeveloped  countries. I'm explaining about a trip I guided in Ethiopia and you can listen to the show here.

More

If you want to know more just have a look at my YouTube or Facebook account.

Friends

These are friends of mine that work in similar fields as I do. We often do projects together and use each others skills and experiences.

Kelly WIllemse - Producer / Fixer

Sjoerd Groos - (Digital) Media Design

Sander Koelstra - Webdesign & Animation

Leonieke Verhoog - Online Media Projects

Heleen Platschorre - Communication & Text

Sjoerd de Vries - Journalist / Fixer

Pieter Crucq - Mediadesign & Photography