10th edtion CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

Astrid H. Roemer – De wereld heeft gezicht verloren (2017 Feature Film)

Marisol Gómez Mouakad | Puerto Rico, Mexico | 2016 | color | DCP | 90 min | Spanish, English | e.s.

A Persian cat, a laptop and a rucksack– the only possessions renowned Surinamese-Dutch author Astrid Roemer had with her for the past 15 years. Her word art was more important than interpersonal relationships or a place to put down roots. Colleagues, linguists and Roemer explain her work in this literary-documentary homage.

“Terrible, terrible … Terrible! If I could never write again? It’d be the death of me!” Astrid Roemer, born in Paramaribo, Suriname in 1947 experiences her links to words, literature and poetry much more strongly than ties to the people or places that have featured in her life. Cindy Kerseborn encountered the renowned Surinamese-Dutch author after a long search in a sumptuous monastery garden in Ghent, Belgium. There Roemer candidly talks about her life and her word art. Kerseborn also spoke to linguists, writers and Roemer’s publisher who all define the author’s work within Dutch cultural heritage. What makes her work so special? Migration, female emancipation, sexism, racism and contemporary sensitivities surrounding Suriname’s history prove important themes.
Atmospheric interludes come courtesy of poems by Roemer which she or others declaim as well as footage of the various places around the globe that she once lived and worked. A literary-documentary homage to an exceptional author, woman, lover, friend and daughter, in short a special human.

Place: CINEMA 6

Date: 7 April 2017

Time: 20:00

Duration: 1:10

Place: CINEMA 3

Date: 9 April 2017

Time: 16:15

Duration: 1:00

Year in
Festival

2017

Director

Cindy Kerseborn

Camera

Ricky Cramer

Country

Netherlands

Editor

Ot Louw

Language

Dutch

Length

75 min

Producer

Stichting Cimaké Foundation

Production Company

Stichting Cimaké Foundation

Sales

Stichting Cimaké Foundation

Sound Design

Nils de Sitter
Tom Nestelaar

Year of Production

2015

Cindy KERSEBORN (1956, Suriname) has been working as a researcher, editor, production manager and interviewer since 1986, for instance for the RVU, NPS and IKON [Dutch TV broadcasters] and for producers including Pieter van Huystee. She has directed various short documentaries as well as a triptych about the Surinamese and Caribbean authors Edgar Cairo, Frank Martinus Arion and Astrid Roemer. 

 

Filmography

(selection) Edgar Cairo: Ik ga dood om jullie hoofd (2010, doc), Frank Martinus Arion: Yu di Kòrsou (Landskind) (2013, doc), Astrid H. Roemer: De wereld heeft gezicht verloren (2015, doc)