Archive

Timeline

1. 1953–1978

   From the Zaanstreek to film school

   Born in Amsterdam on 8 July 1953 and raised in Zaandam. Moves to Brussels in 1975 and studies film at RITCS; his student film dates from 1978.

   Denken, denken, denken (1978)

2. c. 1979–1987

   Community television in Liège

   Directs and edits for Canal Emploi, a television made with and for unemployed workers in Liège. Summer guests include Johan van der Keuken and Jean-Louis Comolli.

   Le pouvoir d'achat des chômeurs (1983) · L'Homme qui en disait trop (1985) · Pas de cadeau pour Noël (1986)

3. 1987

   The turn to form

   Entre deux tours leaves direct cinema behind and opens his work to the language of video art.

   Entre deux tours (1987)

4. 1990–1994

   Closed worlds in motion

   A train to Moscow, the last transatlantic liner, an oil rig with eighty men and one woman.

   Nord-Express (1990) · Transatlantique, Queen Elizabeth 2 (1992) · L'Île noire (1994)

5. 1995–2004

   Islands and extremes

   The Azores, a festival in the Urals at minus twenty-five, the feral cats of Kerguelen, Guangzhou with Robert Cahen, eight train compartments in Alsace, the building of the Queen Mary 2.

   Les Açores de Madredeus (1995) · Perm-mission (1999) · Le Piège de Kerguelen (2000) · Canton la Chinoise (2001) · Les Passagers de l'Alsace (2002) · Kaléidoscope: Overloon (2003) · Kaléidoscope: The Jagiellonian University (2004) · Queen Mary 2, naissance d'une légende (2004)

6. 1997–2012

   Following a name

   With Rogier van Eck, the places that carry the name Amsterdam: two islands at the ends of the earth, then fifteen American towns.

   Amsterdam via Amsterdam (1998) · Panamerica (2010) · Amsterdam Stories USA (2012)

7. 1988–

   The teacher

   Teaches directing at Sint-Lukas, later LUCA, from 1988 to 2018; co-founds the DocNomads master and directs it until 2019; ten years of sessions at the Hanoi film school; workshops from Beirut to Prague, São Paulo and Lisbon.

8. 2010–2021

   China and Judge Dee

   A portrait of the Dutch diplomat and sinologist Robert van Gulik, filmed across three continents and screened across China.

   On the Track of Robert van Gulik (2016)

9. 2015–

   Portraits and retrospectives

   Photographs shown in Brussels, Porto, Brisbane, Liège, Paris, Lisbon and Bredevoort. A monograph in 2022, a photobook in 2024, retrospectives in Strasbourg and Lisbon. A new film, Video Veterans, in progress.

   Joost de Vries (2016) · Amsterdam Side by Side · Video Veterans

Atlas

Written about Rob

• 2025Rob Rombout, a mise en scène do real
  Cinemateca Portuguesa · retrospective and programme texts
• 2025Rob Rombout, documenteur du monde
  Les Plats Pays · interview, 20 January 2025
• 2022Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, Rob Rombout. La mise en scène du réel
  Yellow Now · 256 pages · ISBN 978-2-87340-480-2
• 2022Being [Not] There: regards croisés sur l'œuvre de Rob Rombout
  Symposium · ÉSAVL, University of Liège, Yellow Now
• 2019Frontières de la non-fiction. Parole partagée dans les documentaires filmiques de Chantal Akerman, Robert Cahen et Rob Rombout
  Presses universitaires de Rennes
• 1994Retrospective text
  Videobrasil, São Paulo
• 1991A Journey Without Derailments
  Ernie Tee · Skrien