Dimi Dumortier (born 1966 in Brecht, Belgium) has many ‘hats’: the artist, the activist, the film maker, the social worker/psychologist, the musician and, yes, the actor. Well, he is that type of person, distanced enough from his ego, to see life as a big ‘act’ in itself…..
Above all, I guess, he is an independent soul who refuses to be put into any one ‘box’, but is always in search to bring meaning to what we are doing.
As an artist he made a point to create works in the medium “Dirt on Soap”, symbolizing the discrepancies between – well, the Dirty and the Clean; it earned him a reputation; but he probably found that dirty and moved on.
For some fifteen years he took on the job as a juvenile convicts’ rehabilitation marcher for Belgian non-profit-organisation Alba: doing thousands of kilometers of hikes with criminal youngsters, many of them who found a way back into society as result from that experience. Certainly, it was helpful along the way that Dimi is an excellent multi-instrumentalist and singer alike. – His success with this ‘therapy’ led to his advisorship for Seuil, the French charity set up by the writer and fighter for a better society, Bernard Ollivier; Seuil is now a leading institution in France offering hiking programs for youth’ rehabilitation.
Today Dimi works for a government charity counseling suicidal youths and adults alike: he and his team are open to discuss all and everything and those in need may contact 7/24.
The fastest way though to get an impression of the peculiar, independent, and courageous character of the man should be by watching his documentaries. Especially Pozallo Pirates (together with Rick Merchie) – a provocative and risky stunt to draw public attention in Belgium to the refugee crisis emanating from the Mediterranean giving some of the survivors an opportunity to have their story heard – and The Wild Bees that Keep Us – the story about wild bee keeping in Laos, which is emerging as role model for the proper handling of bees so as to prevent the world-wide bee crisis from becoming fatal.
Right now, Dimi is preparing another exciting documentary about bees: the story of seven exceptional personalities in different parts of Europe, who are fighting, each of them in his/her own way, to prevent the bee crisis to turn into a global catastrophe.
Basel, September 2019
tap
