With our own company Panda Media (founded at the time together with colleague Jan Olaf Boorsma), I produced three major seasons of the program Door Andere Ogen for Omroep Max. Week by week, portraits drawn from current events. Altogether, it was a palette as broad as the news itself.

​

Record international Wesley Sneijder (who was saying farewell to the Dutch national team). The Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (who had just ordered the dismemberment of the critical journalist Khashoggi in Turkey). Singer Glennis Grace (who seemed poised to conquer America in grand fashion). VVD politician Klaas Dijkhoff (once seen as Mark Rutte’s crown prince). But also Angela Merkel, Theresa May, Maarten van der Weijden, and a whole series of others.

​

We worked according to the principle I had embraced earlier while making Profiel: the main figures themselves did not speak, but were literally seen “through other eyes.” Commentators, experts, family members, colleagues.

The series was successful, though we struggled with one major limitation: the short runtime. At just 25 minutes, it was, in my view, too brief to allow for true depth.

​

Mohammed bin Salman still sits regally on his throne. Wesley Sneijder has since separated from Yolanthe, our key interviewee. Glennis Grace fell just short of becoming America’s talent of the year. And Klaas Dijkhoff has left the political stage in The Hague.

The moral of the story? More and more, news is just yesterday’s snow.