Fleur Roovers
Dutch youth with a migrant background, especially from ‘deprived’ neighborhoods, often tend to be labelled as problematic. This made me wonder: how do youth themselves experience these labels? In order to gain insight into the experiences of the youth, I asked them to tell me stories. Stories about how they see their neighborhood. Stories about how they think others see their neighborhood. Stories about childhood memories, positive or negative. The result of these stories is captured in an exhibition that combines audio, video and photo and represents how these youth deal with stigmas about themselves and the places they live in.
Director statement
With this project I wanted to show a more nuanced image of places and people that are often represented one-sided. Also, I found it important to display the voice of the youth, as it contains much power but often remains unheard. Although anthropology is always a work in progress, and so is this project, I hope that my work inspires people to look and think beyond their initial assumptions.
Bio
My name is Fleur Roovers, 27 years old. Last year I got the opportunity to combine my anthropological background and experience in youth work with learning new creative skills in film and photography. As it turns out, it was great! In the future, I would love to keep combining these things and express people’s stories in film and photography.
