De Facto

Vlieland filmfestival

Who is going on a trip with us? Off the Map is teaming up with Podium Vlieland, the cutest filmtheater on the island Vlieland, in the north of the Netherlands to organize a film-weekend on February 20-22, 2026. Through films, we will travel to unrecognized countries, micronations, disputed border areas, and other geographical oddities. And beyond the news and geopolitics, we explore wondrous places and captivating human stories.

De Facto | 3 Dec 2025

De Facto recommends

Dutch Mountain Film Festival

Films, exhibitions, workshops and outdoor activities: visit the Dutch Mountain Film Festival, from 4-9 November in the South of the Netherlands.

Dutch Mountain Film Festival | 3 Nov 2025

Past event

De Facto Live #7

‘Nature Calling’. With journalist Milo van Bokkum about nature & borders, artist Esther Kokmeijer about Antarctica and activist Raki Ap about West Papua. Introduction by graphic designer Floor Koomen, quiz by Suzanne Hendriks. Moderation: Jorie Horsthuis

De Facto | 20 Sep 2023

Analysis Bougainville

Bougainville’s Destructive Goldmine Could Also Be Its Key to Independence

While Bougainville’s Panguna mine was abandoned decades ago, mining has not stopped in the area. Families have set up makeshift houses in the gaping pit, and men, women and children pass their days digging for whatever gold and copper they can reach.

ABC News | 7 Jun 2023

Report Chagos Archipelago

That’s When the Nightmare Started

The forced displacement of the entire Chagossian people by the United Kingdom and United States governments and the UK’s racial persecution, and continued blocking of their return home, are crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a report and video released today.

Human Rights Watch | 15 Feb 2023

Past event

De Facto Live #3

With writer Philip Dröge about Moresnet, pianist and Soviet expert Sara Crombach about Nagorno Karabakh, artist Oscar Santillan about the Bermeja Island and graphic designer Floor Koomen about Celestia. Quiz: Suzanne Hendriks, moderation: Jorie Horsthuis.

De Facto | 1 Jun 2022

News Bougainville

Panguna mine at centre of bloody Bougainville conflict set to reopen after 30 years

Local government hopes reopening of mine – once world’s most profitable – will support bid for independence from Papua New Guinea

The Guardian | 11 Feb 2022

Review

Between Two Shores

Lithuanian photographer Tadas Kazakevičius’s visual love letter Between Two Shores captures the peace and idiosyncrasy of the Curonian Spit—a unique and spectacular geographical formation, barely a mile wide across, that extends for over 60 miles from the coast of Lithuania into the Kaliningrad oblast of the Russian Federation.

Deep Baltic | 7 Dec 2020

In Focus Terrestrial Triangle

The Future of the Triangle

In 2014, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ended the maritime conflict between Chile and Peru. In a Solomonic way, they divided the disputed sea between the two countries. However, the Court’s ruling left one point unresolved: the Terrestrial Triangle.

Francisco Bustamante Ugarte | 3 Nov 2020

Review North Pole

Looking into the Past and Future of the Arctic

Two exhibitions are on show in the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam, each give their view on the North Pole.

De Facto | 25 Apr 2020

Past event

De Facto Live #2

With multimedia journalist Pierre Crom about the Donbas, political analyst Wladimir van Wilgenburg about Kurdistan, designer Irene Stracuzzi about the Arctic and graphic designer Floor Koomen about the South China Sea. Moderation: Jorie Horsthuis.

De Facto | 22 Jan 2020

In focus Mont Blanc

The Reunion, 2018

Have a look at the project by the Dutch artist Vibeke Mascini that aims to reunite the two ‘summits’ that have been expropriated from Mont Blanc—during the first ascend in 1786 and the second in 1787, after being kept in different European museum collections for centuries, both far away from the mountain itself.

De Facto | 3 Dec 2018