Documentary, in development
Friend and Foe
The unlikely friendship between Freek's grandfather Herman, an Amsterdam police officer, and former RAF member Christof Wackernagel, who shot him and his colleagues in 1977.
With Witfilm and KRO-NCRV
Filmmaker, writer, researcher, storyteller
How history keeps shaping the present.
Freek de Goeje is a filmmaker, writer, researcher and storyteller. He specialises in stories about Indigenous perspectives in the Surinamese rainforest, and is also developing films on entirely different themes. His work often begins with an intimate story and connects it to a wider historical and social context.
Current work
All work
Feature film, in development
Kapunau — The Valley of Spirits
After her brother's death, the city-raised Wayana woman Peki carries his body through the Surinamese rainforest to the mythical spirit valley Kapunau.
Co-directed with Jupta Itoewaki · Produced by Witfilm
Book, in development
Five Peoples
The histories of the Wayana, Trio, Kalina, Lokono and Akurio, told through Indigenous perspectives.
Literary nonfiction
Echo Echo Foundation · Board member since 2025
Protecting people and nature, together with Indigenous communities
Echo Echo protects people and nature in vulnerable regions through close collaboration with Indigenous communities and trusted local partners. In the Surinamese rainforest this includes community-led biodiversity monitoring, bioacoustics, camera traps, eDNA, local training and long-term ecological restoration. Together with Stichting Mulokot, Freek works on monitoring biodiversity in the rainforest.
Documentary · 2Doc · 2022–2023 · 40 min
De Toemoek Hoemak Expeditie
The Tumuk Humak Expedition
Freek travels through the Surinamese rainforest in the footsteps of his ancestor, cartographer and linguist Claudius Henricus de Goeje. The journey becomes a critical encounter with colonial history and with the present-day reality of the Wayana, whose land, culture and way of life are threatened by gold mining, mercury pollution, deforestation and outside influence.
Book · Mazirel Pers / Walburg Pers · 2023
Een berg die mijn naam draagt
A mountain range bearing the name of cartographer Claudius de Goeje still rises above the Wayana territory, now threatened by deforestation, pollution and violence. As a child, Freek was proud of it. In 2022 he travels to the Wayana to ask: do they hold his ancestor responsible, and can guilt be inherited?
Dutch only · no English translation yet
“How do we keep our hearts open, even when histories, convictions or experiences place us on opposing sides?”Freek de Goeje
Talks & screenings
All talks and media
- 2026Naturalis Biodiversity CenterSpotlight talk: Expeditions in Perspective
- 2023OVT · VPRO · NPO Radio 1Interview: De Wayana en De Goeje
- 2023SPUI25 & Allard Pierson, AmsterdamScreening and debate: De Toemoek Hoemak Expeditie