Floyd Aanen loves Roosendaal, football club RBC and especially the Kalsdonk district where he was born. “As the people lived in the neighborhood, so they lived in the stands,” says the 38-year-old journalist. He made the short documentary ‘De Luiten, football and working-class neighborhood’ about it.
Although the name might suggest otherwise, Aanen’s documentary has nothing to do with a rolling ball or the result of a football match. It is precisely about the atmosphere and the people from the working-class district of Kalsdonk.
Three men from three different generations who always stood on the West side in the old, demolished De Luiten stadium, talk about the raw edge of the working-class district. That they didn’t let people walk all over them in their neighborhood and that they also stood their ground at RBC.
“Nobody came here to stir up the neighborhood,” says François van Velthoven. “And when we went to NAC-out, we hung up notes in the neighborhood in advance. Then we showed in Breda that we could come with a few hundred people. The Moroccans also went along. If something happened , we made sure no one was caught. You could count on each other.”
“It’s nostalgia worth keeping alive.”
It is clear that not the best boys in the class live in Kalsdonk. And that goes back a long way, according to a quote from 1938 by the Catholic sisters. City historian Joss Hopstaken reads: “The children from Kalsdonk are somewhat notorious! They were neither the best nor the easiest and the mothers often needed just as much education as the children. Kalsdonk was something special.”
It was the reason for maker Floyd Aanen to make the documentary, in which many more Roosendalers have their say. And actually he could have interviewed himself.
“I’ve experienced everything here in the stands and in the neighborhood,” says Aanen. “When I was 12 or 13 my first beer, cigarette and joint. And my first fight. It was my learning experience.”
“Especially the guys from the West side who tell the stories from then, don’t beat about the bush in the documentary,” says Floyd Aanen. “It’s raw, raw, honest, real and also loving. The purpose of the documentary is to show how beautiful those times were. It’s nostalgia worth keeping alive.”
The documentary will premiere on February 5. Interested parties can come and watch from 4.30 pm in the cinema of the Atik Stadium in Roosendaal.
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