The United Nations, One World Human Rights Film Festival, and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Belgium, presented: ‘Deaf Child’
Tobias was already a year old when his parents were confronted with the news that he’d been born deaf. Their automatic reaction was to moderate their expectations—a deaf child, they assumed, was surely destined for an isolated, disadvantaged life. His father Alex de Ronde looks back on the life of his now young adult son and the choices he made as a father. The childhood photos, home movies and frank conversations with Tobias and his brother Joachim reveal how he managed to turn his disadvantage to his benefit. He connects the worlds of the hearing and the deaf through his job as a teacher of sign language. By unconditionally accepting his deafness, he’s able to address several issues, like raising a deaf child and its effects on other family members, and the absurd consequences of having a disability status.
For more on the film, click here.
The film was introduced by the Ambassador of the Embassy of The Netherlands in Belgium
And was followed by a panel discussion with:
- Alex De Ronde, Director of ‘Deaf Child’;
- Tobias De Ronde, Protagonist of ‘Deaf Child’;
- Susanne Bosman, United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR);
- Moderated by Christophe Verhellen, UNRIC.