PROSPEKTOR TEAM

The daily management of Prospektor is in the hands of Eefje (Creative Producer), Laura Verduijn (Business Manager), and Vera Bachrach (All-round Project Leader). They are supported by our Executive Producer Natascha Erfanipour.

Prospektor was founded in 2004 by Eefje Blankevoort & Arnold van Bruggen.


PROSPEKTOR
Utrechtsedwarsstraat 95
1017 WD / Amsterdam
info@prospektor.nl

 
 
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Eefje Blankevoort
Director
Eefje (1978) studied History at the University of Amsterdam. Between 2002 and 2006, she frequently stayed in Iran, where she studied, compiled an archive for the International Institute of Social History, and worked on her book "Stiekem kan hier alles" (Secretly, Everything is Possible Here). Since then, Eefje has developed into a versatile journalist, writing articles and books, creating interactive projects, exhibitions, and documentary films. As a creative producer, she guides the creators at Prospektor.

eefje@prospektor.nl
t.0624607966

Laura Verduijn
Business Director
Laura is the Business Director and Project Manager at Prospektor. Project management, writing grant applications, editorial work, managing huge budgets, brainstorming, leading teams—Laura oversees many of our projects down to the smallest detail. She is skilled in a wide range of areas, from reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda (Love Radio) to Dutch asylum policy (The Asylum Machine), and she is unfazed by the sometimes massive scale of our projects.

laura@prospektor.nl
t.0647146564

Vera Bachrach
Project manager | producer
Vera (1989) ran her own campaign and design agency for ten years. With projects like The Tostifabriek, Do-It-Yourself Chicken, and The Great Shrink, she highlighted urgent social issues in diverse ways—from a chicken-growing kit to lectures encouraging people not to reproduce. Nowadays, Vera uses her organizational talents to bring structure and maintain oversight in the often formidable Prospektor productions. She ensures maximum social impact, something she has been doing for over a decade.

vera@prospektor.nl

Natascha Erfanipour
Executive Producer | Researcher
Natascha studied Cultural Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. She worked as an assistant director for, among others, Mijke de Jong on the film Along the Way. At Prospektor, she works as a researcher and executive producer on projects such as the series Schakelen, the transmedia project Schildpad & De Monnik, and Tina in Sexbierum.

natascha@prospektor.nl
t.0681429024


Makers

Lara Aerts
Writer | Researcher
Lara is our longest-standing office mate, and we never want to let her go. We've closely followed her remarkable career path. She has written countless articles for women's and consumer magazines, had a sex column in Grazia, and creates stories for de Volkskrant, Het Parool, and Het Financieele Dagblad. She conducts research and handles publicity for journalistic productions. Her current focus is on documentary film: together with office mate Sanne Rovers, she made De Spelende Mens, and she's collaborating with Els van Driel on two new documentaries about children and adults with intersex. In her free time, Lara assists a street doctor and keeps her two miniature dogs alive.

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Frederiek Biemans
Curator | Programmamaker
Frederiek Biemans is an independent program and exhibition maker. She curates and produces exhibitions along with related programs and events. She was the artistic director at Humanity House, where she shaped the content and artistic direction of exhibitions and programs on (inter)national themes around peace, justice, and migration. She also worked at KABK to create an exhibition with third-year photography students and at World Press Photo, where she developed and published educational projects for young professional photographers in books and exhibitions. She now does the same for Prospektor, including the A New Beginning exhibition, which was displayed at various locations in 2022, and Je moest eens weten, which will soon be shown at the Nederlands Fotomuseum.

Rosa Ruth Boesten
Film maker
Rosa is an award-winning director. She creates cinematic documentary films rooted in the rawness of the real world. Her first short documentary was about her grandmother, a single mother and struggling artist. Rosa told her grandmother's story through her artworks, planting the seed for her future in filmmaking. She premiered her first feature documentary, Master of Light, at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival, where it won the Documentary Feature Grand Jury Award. Her debut continued to win multiple awards at prestigious film festivals. Rosa is now releasing the short documentary Droombeeld together with Çiğdem Yüksel.

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Arnold van Bruggen
Film director
Arnold (1979) grew up on the beautiful island of Texel, where he now lives again after 20 years in Amsterdam. Arnold is fascinated by how the grand narratives and movements in history are experienced from everyday life. From this perspective, he created works such as the documentary De Russenoorlog and the cross-media The Sochi Project. With The Sochi Project and Hidden Wounds, he experimented with new storytelling forms, combining films, exhibitions, the web, and Arnold’s favorite medium—books.

arnold@prospektor.nl
t.0614656351

Maartje Duin
Radio maker
Maartje is a passionate, original, and in-depth radio producer. Through her work, she not only explores relevant social issues but also experiments with form, as seen in her live performance Mijn vader de sterrenkijker (My Father the Stargazer). She successfully reaches a broad audience with her projects, encouraging conversations among people. This is evident in her highly listened-to podcasts De plantage van onze voorouders (The Plantation of Our Ancestors) and Mina & Mevrouw.

maartjeduin.nl

Els van Driel
Film maker
Els and Eefje have known each other since their student days at film theater Kriterion. It soon became clear that they share a deep connection in their motivations and ideals. They collaborated on De Asielzoekmachine (The Asylum Seeker Machine), De Deal (The Deal), and Shadow Game. Both are passionate about in-depth research and believe that our treatment of refugees is the defining issue of our time.

elsvandriel.nl

Tina Farifteh
Visual artist | Photographer | Film maker
Tina understands how malleable human nature is. With an academic background in both economics and art, she can approach this from various perspectives. Previously, she worked in marketing, where she was daily engaged in enticing people with imagery. In her current role as a multidisciplinary creator, she continues to do this, albeit with a critical reflection on the phenomenon. Central to her work is how people are influenced—by images, companies, and governments. In her award-winning video installation The Flood, she deconstructed right-wing populist rhetoric surrounding refugees. In her upcoming short documentary Kitten of Refugee?, she explores the mechanics and construction of our empathy.

tinafarifteh.com

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Sara Kolster
Interactive designer | Film director
Sara Kolster is an interactive director and designer specializing in digital storytelling. She graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Sandberg Institute. Eefje and Sara met during their collaboration on Sara's graduation project: the web documentary series Het Beloofde Land, which explores alternative uses of holiday parks (e.g., as a place for separated men or asylum seekers). The interface was designed based on a booking page for bungalow parks. A recurring theme in all their joint projects is that interaction, interface, and design must logically stem from the subject matter. They have collaborated on numerous projects, including Love Radio, Hidden Wounds, De Asielzoekmachine, Imperial Courts, and Shadow Game.

sarakolster.com

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Anaïs López
Photographer
Anaïs is the kind of creator that producers dream of. She is a storyteller at heart. She speaks about her encounter with the Mynah bird with a blend of seriousness and a great sense of humor. Independent and open to collaboration, we are thrilled that Anaïs has come to us with her beautiful project De Migrant.

anaislopez.nl

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Laura Stek
Radio maker | Writer
Laura has a background as a written journalist and radio producer, but she is increasingly experimenting with transmedia and film. We learned radio production from Laura. Together, Eefje and Laura created One Night Stiekem, about Lies, who was determined not to reach the age of 85. For the interactive music video Hidden Wounds about veterans with PTSD, we collaborated on the two-part radio documentary Mannen huilen niet, which explored post-traumatic stress syndrome throughout the ages. Laura, in turn, taught us what transmedia projects are and contributed to Imperial Courts (in collaboration with Dana Lixenberg), De Migrant, and the installation een luisterend oor with Sanne Rovers. She is also making her first film documentary, GIOIA, with Eefje as her coach.

laurastek.nl

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Çiğdem Yüksel
Photographer | Visual artist
Doing it ourselves, trying everything out, and learning along the way—this is our motto. We share this with Çiğdem. During her master’s in journalism, she discovered that her passion lies primarily in imagery. She bought a camera and decided to fully focus on photography. That choice paid off: in 2016, she won the Silver Camera award for her series on Syrian child labor in Turkey. Çiğdem and I collaborated on Shadow Game, the transmedia project about unaccompanied minors traveling through Europe in search of a better life. Her new transmedia project, Je moest eens weten, is currently being exhibited at the Nederlands Fotomuseum.

cigdemyuksel.com

 


Crew

Ton Peters
Cameraman
No one gets closer than Ton. Like no one else, he knows how to become invisible while moving right in front of, next to, or behind the main character. Whether it’s the 8-year-old Tanans (Nieuw) or the religious fanatic Koen (Breng de Joden Thuis), Ton is a dancer whose fluid style is unmistakable to us. And while he captures a beautiful long shot, he also looks ahead and follows the scene exactly as needed.

cinematography.nl

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Zuhoor Al Qaisi
Researcher | Journalist
Zuhoor Al Qaisi studied radio and television at the University of Tikrit in Iraq. She worked for various newspapers there. Additionally, she volunteered for an NGO, helping Iraqi refugees fleeing from ISIS. In 2015, she fled her country herself due to the dangers she faced as a female journalist. Now that she is in the Netherlands, she seizes the opportunity to continue her journalistic work with both hands. Zuhoor assisted with the research for De Deal and is now contributing to Shadow Game.

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