In this episode I spoke to Dutch film director Huibert van Wijk, His documentary film Child of Their Time, a Rinkel Docs & EOdocs production, was released by Al Jazeera and is available on YouTube.
The film revolves around Huibert’s brother Tim, who was adopted from Indonesia in the 1970s, and his struggles with fitting in with his family and in Dutch society.
It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a while.
We spoke about why Huibert decided to make this film in the first place.
We talked about the broader context of adoptions to the Netherlands and other western countries, because the film ties in with the history of Dutch colonialism in Indonesia, and what many scholars agree is a post-colonial legacy of continued exploitation, white supremacy, and Euro-centrism, in the form of adoption.
The narrative has always been dire poverty, no chance, no parents, if you don’t save this child it will die. That turns out, it wasn’t true in many cases.
Some the most striking moments in the conversation came when Huibert spoke of how he managed to make his brother and father comfortable enough to be deeply vulnerable in front of the camera.
We ended the conversation by having Huibert ruminate on a topic that’s exceptionally important today: the possibility of reconciliation in light of unfathomable traumas and injustices.
To watch Child of Their Time (with English subtitles) please visit:
To watch the Dutch language version, please visit: https://www.npodoc.nl/documentaires/2024/09/kind-van-de-tijd.html
If you want to know more about the (Dutch language) photo book called Children of their Time, which is coming out soon, please get in touch with Huibert through: https://kinderenvandetijd.nl/
To learn more about Huibert and his work, please visit his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/huibertalexander/, or his website: https://huibertvanwijk.nl/
Sound credits:
Political (loop) by AudioCoffee -- https://freesound.org/s/718891/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
Huibert van Wijk.
