10th edition CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

Deaf Child (Doof Kind) (2018 Feature Film)

Alex de RONDE | Netherlands | 2017 | doc | color | DCP | 72′ | Dutch | e.s.

SCENES OF SENSES_Alex de Ronde wanted to shoot an uplifting story about deafness, not a pathetic one. In this intimate debut larded with dry humor he portrays his 29-year old son Tobias. In De Ronde’s opinion, Tobias’s late mother’s remark best sums up the film: “Well, hearing’s never going to work, but being deaf can be fun too.” 

Deaf Child is a personal, yet balanced, comedic debut in which Alex de Ronde portrays his now 29-year old son – and en passant his brother Joachim, who is not deaf. According to De Ronde, deafness is almost always depicted as a defect to be repaired. Which explains why almost all deaf children nowadays have a cochlear implant surgically installed which, in the filmmaker’s opinion, often detracts from sign language, the only way the deaf can truly communicate.

Using conversations and excerpts from everyday life, De Ronde reveals how Tobias has seldom been hampered by his deafness and has even made it a strength, for example by teaching. Even so, the outside world often neglects to take it into account: a dentist wearing a mask pointlessly explains the coming procedure to Tobias, even though the latter can’t read his lips. Winner of the VPRO IDFA Audience Award 2017.

Place: The Cinemas 3

Date: 12 April 2018

Time: 17:45

Duration: 0:55

Place: The Cinemas 6

Date: 14 April 2018

Time: 20:30

Duration: 0:55

Place: The Cinemas 3

Date: 15 April 2018

Time: 11:00

Duration: 0:55

Year in
Festival

2018

Director

Alex de RONDE

Camera

Deen van der Zaken
Remco Bikkers
Alex de Ronde
Pieter Colombijn

Cast

x

Country

Netherlands

Editor

Chris van Oers

Language

Dutch

Length

72′

Music

Paul M. van Brugge

Producer

Pieter van Huystee

Production Company

Pieter van Huystee Film

Production Design

x

Sales

Scenario

Alex de Ronde

Sound Design

Mark Glynne

Year of Production

2017

Alex de RONDE

Alex de RONDE (1958) was a film critic until his appointment as head of programming at the Netherlands Film Festival in 1986. During the 1990s he was the editor in chief of Woord & Gebaar, the only independent, national magazine for the deaf in the Netherlands. In 2000, he became the director/programmer of Het Ketelhuis cinema in Amsterdam. He has produced two short films: De reorganisatie van de afdeling herhuisvesting Franeker (2006, Eddy Terstall & Hans Teeuwen) and Peptalk (2014, Joppe van Hulzen). Deaf Child is his debut as a documentary filmmaker

 

Filmography

Doof kind/Deaf Child (2017)