Edward Snijders, Dutch national, born 1950, longtime diver, dive instructor, photographer and filmmaker.

A few years ago Edward Snijders changed his life by getting into underwater filming after a long - but uneventful - career in air traffic control.

Be it air or water, it is the 3 dimensional environment where he feels most at ease. For many years he spent his time underwater just taking pictures. Then some time ago Edward changed to video never to look back.

Some successful productions over the years include Reefstory, Seals for Real, Sanganeb and most recently Eau de Bretagne. They screened - and were sometimes awarded prizes - at major film festivals such as the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival, Antibes (France), Belgrade (Serbia), Moscow, Birmingham (UK), Düsseldorf (Germany), Vaasa (Finland) and Seychelles, to name a few.

Edward is founder and director of the annual North Sea Film Festival for underwater movies in the Netherlands, which started in 2007. Though he loves organizing the festival, filmmaking is his priority.

Travelled the world, has seen a lot, bought many T-shirts, but is happy to say he did not see it all.

More details on website www.submarines.nl

Short description of the film "Eau de Bretagne"
In Europe a lot of people tend to think that colours and amazing critter life are only to be found in tropical areas like the Red Sea, Maldives and Pacific.

This film however takes you to the cold Atlantic Ocean, to the French coast of Brittany. Rough and harsh as the Breton coast may be, colours and marine life are unique.

Short description of the film "Dipole"
Dipole is an an intriguing real life nature conservation story from the Pulau Banyak Archipelago, which passed the world\'s attention unnoticed. The 100 island+ archipelago is situated just south of the Indonesian island of Aceh and Sumatra, in the Indian Ocean.

The reefs however were destroyed by a combined natural and human inflicted effect, which still rules day-to-day life in the archipelago. The islands have been hit hard over the last few years: first they had to deal with the 2005 tsunami, which they overcame quite well, then, 3 months later, they were hit by the Nias earthquake. An earthquake with a devastating force of 8.8 on Richter\'s scale. The whole archipelago was tilted, the inhabited islands went down, the uninhabited up. Houses were flooded, corals were uplifted and died.

Help was offered by the World Bank, who paid for road uplifting by paying for 20000 m3 of corals, which was collected both dead and alive. The World Bank left halfway, when they were told this was not the way they should provide help. Till today, much of the the island is still in the state it was just after the March 2006 Nias earthquake..

The islands look like paradise with lush green vergetation and white sandy beaches. On Bangkaru, one of the 100 or so islands, you find the largest turtle nesting beach in the whole of Aceh and Sumatra. Yayasan Pulay Banyak , an NGO, takes care of the turtle protection programme, without forgetting to aid the islanders. No more eggs are poached, English education is provided and eco tourism developed.