Dirk
Vandersypen as a journalist
Dirk
made his first television reports, in Central America, for
Norwegian and Swiss television. From 1983 until his death,
Dirk and his regular cameraman Jan Van Bilsen made several
television documentaries in which the ordinary person was
central.
From
1987, Dirk was the Flemish public broadcaster BRT's
correspondent in Latin America.
As an
independent reporter and documentary maker, he worked for
the Spanish
TV3, the
Dutch
Ikon TV and
VPRO and the
Flemish
BRT (reports
for radio and television newsreels and editorial current
affairs programmes such as ‘Panorama’,
‘Ter Zake’, ‘NV De Wereld’ and
‘Kwesties’). His work could be seen virtually
all over the world and his documentaries were awarded
numerous prizes.
In 1986 Dirk was awarded the
Gran Coral at the
International Film Festival in Havana, Cuba, for his
documentary A su
Nombre, about
evangelical sects in Honduras and Guatemala.
In 1995 his documentary Vervlogen
dromen, about
the Malecon, the seafront promenade of Havana, was awarded
a special mention in the category ‘Grands Réportages
et Faits de Société’ at the FIPA in Biarritz
(France).
In 1995,
together with Stev Van Thielen, Dirk filmed
Cuba
111,
a documentary about the forty families who struggle
to make ends meet in a dilapidated town house in Old
Havana. Cuba
111 was
broadcast throughout the world and awarded many prizes:
- A
special mention in the category `Grands Réportages et Faits
de Société', FIPA, Biarritz, France (1996)
- The
Prix Pierre-Alain Donnier,
Rencontres Médias Nord-Sud, Geneva, Switzerland (1996)
- The
Silver Medianet Award,
Munich, Germany (1996)
- The
Premios Ondas,
Barcelona, Spain (1996)
- The
Silver World Medal in the
category ‘Community Portraits’, New York
Festival, USA (1997)
- The
Silver Hugo Award in the
category socio-political documentaries, International
Television Film Festival, Chicago, USA (1997)
- selected
for HOTDOCS, Toronto, Canada (1997)
- nominated
at the 22nd International Film Festival, Hong Kong (1998)
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In his last documentary Magic City (1998) Dirk followed a number of the inhabitants of Mexico City. In 1999 this documentary won him his second Silver Hugo Award.
