BULLIED ENDLESSLY:
THE STORY OF DAAN
THE STORY.
Imagine: you start puberty and start high school. You make new friends, but you soon find out that you don't belong. You are excluded. This is exactly what happened to Daan. The documentary Eindeloos Gepest (translated to Bullied Endlessly) shows how unbearable bullying can feel. Based on stories and experiences from family, teachers, friends and classmates, we form a picture of Daan. For him, the bullying felt so unbearable that he ended his life at the age of sixteen.
'Daan was looking forward to high school', his mother says in the documentary. But it soon turns out that he doesn't belong. For example, he was the only boy not invited to a classmate's party, ‘because the party is only for boys’. The years that follow are characterized by physical bullying, name-calling and being excluded. His belongings are regularly hidden, he is laughed at because of his interest in theater and he is regularly called gay. Daan endures it for two years, then he changes schools. Also fellow classmate and friend Lotte left for another school after two years. In the documentary she organizes a reunion for her and Daan’s former classmates. She wants to discuss the toxic atmosphere in her former school setting. What turns out is that many classmates felt unsafe. For example, one of the students explains that he was afraid that if he didn't wear designer clothes, he would be laughed at. It turned out to be a toxic group dynamic.
THE PRODUCTION.
Bullying is not just about name-calling and physical confrontations. The impact of more invisible forms of bullying, such as exclusion, can be just as great. This is what the making of this documentary has made me realise. Organising a school reunion for the documentary by former classmate and BFF Lotte painfully showed how toxic a school environment can be and how it can cause many lasting scars.
After the release of the documentary, the film was used in secondary schools to start a conversation about bullying. Lotte: “Every year in September, secondary schools start again. A new class is randomly put together. You have to rely on each other. In that sense, nothing special. Daan was not necessarily bullied by being kicked off his bike, for example. It was other things, such as exclusion. That may seem less serious, but it is not. Many other children are certainly excluded, and I hope that this will be discussed by making use of this film. In our class, the culture of exclusion crept in, and that has caused great damage.”
My role
Director, scenarist, editor
Release
Oktober 2023
Length
52 minutes
Film location
the Netherlands
Year of production
2023
Broadcaster
KRO-NCRV
Production house
Mediawan Skyhigh
More info on
kro-ncrv.nl
