Stories to be proud of. Young new Dutch people and the Community Arts Project 'Ik ben Hier' #vvu

 

These classes include young people aged between 15 and 19 who have just arrived in the Netherlands. And are also illiterate or have a very low level of education. So these young people have to learn a language in several ways. They have to learn Dutch and they have to learn to read and write.

Stroomer and Sprenger add to this the learning of figurative language. Because that language is more direct, easier. In twenty weeks per class, the youngsters make their own film about their lives. They get to film, direct, interview and edit. Two films will be the final result. The films will be screened during the Treaty of Utrecht event in June 2013.

How did you guys come up with it?

Femke:

I did a pilot project last year in which five young people from ISK told about their lives in a film. These young people had been here longer, an average of two years, and their level of education was higher. The film was successful in several ways.

Sanne:

For outsiders because they got an idea of the young people's lives. For the young people themselves because it is an unwritten rule that you don't talk about your past. They feel that everyone has the same story, or that you don't bother another with your past: "they know how I feel". It was a surprise for everyone when their stories became visible.

 

What were those stories?

Femke:

There was a boy from Iraq who had first lived on his own in Syria for a year while his family had already fled to the Netherlands. He was only 15 and found that very difficult. Very different was the story of the Turkish girl who had very consciously chosen her mother, who had married a Dutchman in the Netherlands. She could get a good education in the Netherlands, but not in Turkey. When you make a decision like that at 15, I find it impressive.

The pilot was with young people with reasonable education, now they are illiterate young people who have to learn a lot in a short time. How will you approach it?

Sanne:

We made the school a conscious participant in the project. Femke's pilot was outside school hours, now it's every Monday afternoon for six months. The school believes in learning as many competences as possible.

What do the young people themselves think?

Sanne:

They were very enthusiastic, which was noticeable when they were introduced. Also, the young people are the first to learn manners. So everyone was very polite: 'How are you ma'am, good afternoon.'

Femke:

If, like us, you have also worked at ROCs, it is a totally different atmosphere. At the ISK, there is enthusiasm; at the ROC, you often see them thinking: oh no, are we going to get that again'.

Aren't you afraid of the idea of the filmmaker going to teach a poor immigrant something for a while?

Sanne:

They film themselves, they interview themselves, they have a big say in the editing. The exciting thing, of course, is that we not only want an interesting process, but also a beautiful final product. So we are going to look for the balance between steering for quality without interfering too much with their own choices and the cultural or otherwise notion of how to tell a story. That will be a challenge.

Femke:

Some people question whether you are allowed to do that, make people relive their sometimes violent pasts. But for the young people in the pilot project, it didn't feel imposed. They were simply their stories. Filmed themselves, interviewed themselves. Stories to be proud of.