Open: 19:30 - 23:00 hrs
Tickets: € 0
The premier screening of our FUSHUP documentary episode one will be at OT301 on June 4th at 19:30.
The Netherlands has a reputation for tolerance. A place where dissent isn’t just allowed, but encouraged. Where protest is part of the democratic fabric. Where people gather, speak out, and challenge power openly. And on the surface, that’s still true. But something is shifting. Not through dramatic crackdowns or headline bans, but through quieter, more subtle means. Regulations. New legislation. Permits for “designated protest zones.” Conditions on when, where, and how protest can happen. Protest isn’t disappearing – it’s being managed. Around the world, and here in the Netherlands, the space to protest is shrinking. Laws are being rewritten to criminalize dissent. Peaceful protestors face consequences that no longer match their actions. The right to disrupt – the very essence of protest – is being reframed as a threat. When non-violent dissent starts to look like a crime, something fundamental is breaking.
But there’s a second problem. While power evolves, protest largely doesn’t. We still gather. March. Chant. The same playbook, repeated across generations. There’s value in that – but its impact is fading. Because predictable protest is easy to manage. Easy to anticipate. Easy to redirect. Easy to ignore. And protest that doesn’t evolve becomes less effective. Not because the message is wrong, but because the method no longer breaks through.
This is where FUSHUP comes in. FUSHUP is an independent journalistic experiment focused on the evolution of protest. We explore the power of creative, non-violent resistance – not just as a moral stance, but as a strategic one. Because creativity is harder to control. It appears where it’s not expected. It disrupts without following the script. It communicates in ways that are difficult to suppress – and impossible to unsee. Through films, live events, and publications, FUSHUP documents and amplifies breakthrough examples of modern protest – actions that shift perception, hijack attention, and force themselves into public consciousness. Not to repeat what’s been done, but to expand what’s possible.
FUSHUP launches June 5, marking the anniversary of a defining act of non-violent resistance during the Tiananmen Square protests. A moment that didn’t rely on scale, but on action. That’s the direction. Because if protest is being pushed out of sight, it must find new ways to be seen. If disruption is being criminalized, it must become more inventive. If power is evolving, protest must evolve faster.
FU.SH.UP
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Episode one drops on YouTube, June 5.