This series never reached production, yet we choose to showcase it on our website nonetheless. Why? Because we hold the belief that the projects we didn’t bring to fruition, those that slipped through our fingers, the ones that got away, are often equally significant and dear to us. This sentiment stems not just from the substantial investment of money, time and effort we pour into every project, whether in production or in development, but also from our conviction that the journey matters as much as the final product.
It all started with a newspaper clipping. Its lede read: “Sex with young girls? We are going to get you.” In the article the public prosecutor, David van Kuppeveld, was quoted: “It’s a crime to have paid sex with underaged girls and I am not going to keep it a secret.” The prosecutor was referring to his hunt for the alleged perpetrators. His aggressive stance, as conveyed by the media, ultimately led to three suicides. In a country where prostitution is legal, albeit not with underaged girls, this was a remarkable story. Not least because the girl, who according to the prosecution was forced into prostitution, denied all wrongdoing on the part of her boyfriend/pimp.
We were convinced that the story of the Valkenburg sexual abuse case would lend itself to an approach where non-fiction and fiction are interwoven into an ingenious mosaic structure. At the time of the court case nobody seemed remotely interested in the stories behind the larger, sensational story that was displayed in newspapers and on television day in and day out. Therefore, we believed that a fictitious portrayal of reality would help open eyes and alter those often biased perspectives. Yet, to create a profoundly meaningful project on such a sensitive subject, we decided to first organize a two-day conference on hybrid documentary.
With the support of Dutch public television NPO2 and Dutch broadcaster VPRO, we organised the two-day Crossover Lab in the spring of 2018, in which the possibilities of a hybrid form – the use of both non-fiction and fiction elements – were explored. Experts such as Job ter Burg (editor Paul Verhoeven), Ester Gould (director TV series Schuldig), Jaap Peter Enderlé (screenwriter Van God Los) and Maaik Krijgsman (director Langs de Oevers van de Yangtze) discussed the question of how a truly hybrid documentary series can be realised. How wide is the scope of fiction within the documentary? How far can you go? Should it remain close to the truth or can you also use different, more fictitious interpretations? In other words, could you, for instance, put Kimberley’s mother down as a stripper, a nun and a good housewife, so that we can play with how this woman is portrayed in the media and thus play with the viewers’ prejudices and expectations?
Together with Belgian screenwriter Joost Vandecasteele and director Pieter van Hees we decided to create a hybrid documentary series which would explore the Valkenburg sexual abuse case in all its facets. Vandecasteele and Van Hees came up with the idea to use a reverse narrative: the series shouldn’t start at the beginning of the sexual abuse case but at the end. In this way it starts with a suicide and ends with a budding love between two teenagers. At the beginning, the viewer doesn’t know that the suicide victim is a man who had sex with a female minor. Sympathy for the relatives of the suicide victim will be more likely, which will significantly increase the willingness to view the man through the more empathetic eyes of those same relatives.
During the research, the lab, the production of the teaser we were only met with enthusiasm and a can-do mentality from everybody involved, in particular from the Dutch public broadcasting corporation, Creative Europe and the VPRO. Unfortunately, the commission from the NPO-fonds, a powerful organization when it comes to funding in the Netherlands, was not at all convinced. It reviewed the proposal on three different occasions but in the end were adamant: a commission consisting of three anonymous men and women advised against providing basic funding.
“This committee still lacks sufficient grasp on the creators’ vision regarding the specific case and its relation to the broader societal themes they aim to expose. It misses their intrinsic personal need to make the series and lacks an explanation of its urgency. The involved content team of director, co-director/screenwriter, and intended editor, has mainly experience with fiction. Despite the intended “Gesamtwerk”, the documentary perspective in the core team is somewhat (!) underrepresented, according to the committee. Regarding the female perspective, which is deemed essential especially for episode one, the committee finds more diversity within the team necessary for a careful and thoughtful elaboration. The committee thinks that the plan is insufficiently nuanced in content and in the intended hybrid form to do justice to the experiential world, complexity and fragility of all characters within a clear overarching theme.”