NEW BOOK: Dwaaltaal, out June 2023

Jurriën Rood is a philosopher and a filmmaker.
After graduating from the Amsterdam filmschool he wrote and directed fiction film, tv work and theatre for years and headed a prizewinning comedygroup, before taking up the study of philosophy. After graduating with honors Rood worked as a free researcher and filmmaker at the Amsterdam Police Force. His investigations on the street authority of the police force resulted in the book What’s wrong with authority?, a practical philosophical study, nominated for the yearly Socrates prize. (An English synopsis can be found here.) Since then Rood wrote three more philosophical books - a.o. a critical biography of Dutch wartime collaborator Lentz, head of the registration department. In addition he wrote several short articles, a filmscript and a play, and directed a musical theatre show. His short pieces on a wide variety of subjects are published on the Blog.
Rood is currently working on documentary filmprojects and just finished his next book, on language: Dwaaltaal.
 
 

PHILOSOPHY

Rood studied philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, specializing in philosophy of language, epistemology and philosophy of cognition. He graduated in 2006 with distinction; his doctoral thesis Stanislavski Meets Embodied Cognition compares a new philosophical theory with a well known actors praxis, centering on the relation of body and mind. For a complete list of his philosophical essays and publications go here.
Between 2007-2011 his work as a free investigator at the Amsterdam Police Force, focussing on their authority in the streets, resulted in two reports. He then reworked the theme for a wider audience, broadening the scope to a practical philosophical investigation of the state of authority in the Netherlands. The book, What’s wrong with authority? – a new look at a familiar subject, was nominated in 2014 for the Socrates prize for best philosophical publication. An English synopsis can be found here.

Since then Rood has been writing articles and giving lectures (with filmclips) on the theme of authority, and is in demand as a consultant in this field.
His next book, The Pegida issue -  journalistic philosopy from Dresden and Amsterdam, about the  nationalist conservative streetmovement in Dresden, made it to the Socrates longlist. It was followed by A philosophy of the jamsession, an essay on collaboration, freedom and rules, based on Rood's own experience as a saxofonist in jazz and pop jamsessions. Next was a historical study, based on original research: the first biography of Lentz, the Dutch expert on population registration who became an important collaborator for the nazi's during the Occupation. His latest book takes language as its subject: Dwaaltaal studies popular but faulty expressions and the role they play in the public debate.

FILM

Jurriën Rood graduated in '76 from the Dutch Film Academy of Amsterdam, as a writer/director. His first short ROUND THE TABLE was selected for the Oberhausen Filmfest 75, his graduation short KASPER EN HUGO won honourable mention at the student filmfest of Tours 77. After years as assistant-director and writer on feature films as well as tv-documentaries, he started out on his own concentrating mostly on drama. He wrote and directed a couple of halflength features, directed varied tv-work, wrote screenplays and made one feature-length film: THE ORION NEBULA. Rood also worked in the documentary field; THE ROAD TO BRESSON, about the famous french filmdirector, was shown in the program of the Cannes Festival 84 and sold to several countries. For a listing of films and tv-work go here.
Alongside filmmaking Rood wrote film criticism for Skoop and was on the magazine’s editorial staff. His work as a freelance writer on film and theatre, e.g. on Forrest Gump or the work of Leni Riefenstahl, is listed here (in Dutch).
Currently Rood has moved his filmmaking career in the direction of (essayistic) documentary, often working as a one man production unit. His stay at the Amsterdam Police Force led to a couple of documentaries and a collection of very short webdocs: THE UNKNOWN POLICE. His docu short THAT DAY AND THAT FILM was shown on television in 2015. Recently he has been making promotional docu shorts for the web.

THEATRE

At the start of the 80’s Rood moved into the theatre, to learn more about actors. He founded his own satirical group ‘1983’, functioning as writer and actor – the group won jury and audience award at the Leids Cabaretfestival in1983 and made four shows in four years. Rood directed around 30 productions for the small stage, ranging from musical theatre to children’s plays, from a Pinter short to adaptations of Aristophanes and Molière. He wrote and directed a couple of plays (oa The Child) and had a long standing working relationship as writer-director with the theaterduo ‘Real Men’ resulting in six original productions. Most of his work can be seen as variation on the genre of tragic-comedy. For a list of productions (in Dutch) and photo’s go here. Recently he ventured out in musical theatre, writing and directing the percussion show N.E.W.S. - a journey in percussion. Rood just finished a new play, 'The helping hand', about the infamous meeting of the philosophers Hume and Rousseau.