“Luc, young man, what have you done now!”
This was all incredibly funny, but that didn't get me back upstairs! No one had any rope. If anyone else had come down, they would have been stuck too, so we couldn't solve it that way. Yep. Rescue was brought by a light van, with a Belgian license plate. The driver had stopped to see if he could help –soli-darity, great.
“We need cord!” the group said
and hallelujah, he had it. They made a kind of lasso that they lowered and that I
could tie around me under my armpits.
With brute force and caution, the group lifted me back up – if they weren't paying attention,
they would suddenly slide down themselves. Madness. Fortunately, the Belgian freight driver had some kind of plastic cover with him, which I could wrap around myself. I didn't look like much – I had mud up to my ears and underpants – but at least with that thing around me I didn't dirty anything or anyone else. Holding a press conference in that state was of course not possible.
How were we going to get this resolved? All hope rested on our hotel. We should
arriving with a few hours to spare before the start of the conference. The hotel staff helped us like a well-oiled machine. We came in and were given sheets to wrap around me
wrapping – people laughed, just the Holy Spirit hopping in. I was able to hand over all my clothes to the staff and they would make sure they came back washed and dry – I could shower straight away – and with an excited heart it was now a matter of waiting. Half an hour before the start of the conference, they came to return my clothes. I met Hugo Claus again fifteen minutes before the start. He shook my hand and had a good laugh – he had already heard the whole story.
“You'll have to work that into a script later,” he laughed.
The press conference started and was broadcast on NOS later that evening. Life is a learning experience. In the end we received no subsidies. Even with the name Hugo Claus behind you, you had no certainty.
The official explanation behind the rejection was that our film club was a non-profit organization and not an official commercial production house. From the internal kitchen we heard all kinds of other things blowing and, yes, those practical reasons were just a convenient excuse. Important and influential people in the committee had problems with the film being about homosexuality. It was still the '80s. Publicly, non-heteros, especially gays, were often still seen as second-class scum – and should film subsidies go there? That was not possible for some.
Our sponsor saw his advance go up in smoke and we were left with an illusion. Goodbye and farewell, “Love versus Hate”. In retrospect I could see that the screenplay might not have been fantastically good, but
knowing that it was rejected purely because of the theme... That stung and will always sting.
I wanted to keep learning. Around the age of 30, I moved to Hasselt and enrolled at the Open University of Diepenbeek, where I started studying Anthropology as a free student. In retrospect
I should have chosen sociology - that actually interested me more - but I liked history and this course could exactly combine my interest in humanity and history.
My study adventure would last a year. I was very aware of the challenges that studying full-time would bring, I wanted to give it a try, but in the end it turned out to be too hard. Me
concentrating was so difficult, I still often felt lonely - tended to have severe migraines, often my mind took such a deep dive... It limited me. After a year I quit the course, but I continued to live in Hasselt.
This time has taught me a lot, but not at school. I had moved into a special apartment complex, where there was room for everyone who needed help. Whether you were a student, temporarily without a home, disabled, or recently immigrated, there was room for everyone there. There were many different types of people and here I rediscovered the warmth of solidarity. We helped each other. I helped people who could not speak Dutch well with their papers; sometimes students cooked among themselves and in the past they asked me if I wanted to eat too; sometimes I sponsored others' meals; there was a lot of mutual respect.
My group of friends expanded. I had made a very good new friend in Hasselt, Jeroen. I met him through Dennis. Once Jeroen asked Erik to wait for him in the evening.
That was one of the cafes in Hasselt that we regularly went to
27.
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