# Rob Rombout

> Rob Rombout (born in Amsterdam, 1953) is a documentary filmmaker, photographer and teacher, based in Brussels since 1975 and now also in Lisbon. His films about journeys, vessels and places named after other places have screened at IDFA, Cinéma du Réel and IndieLisboa. He was a founding member of the Erasmus Mundus master DocNomads and its course director in Brussels, 2012–2019.

Official website of Rob Rombout. Facts on this site are sourced and dated (last verified 2026-10-25); see https://www.robrombout.com/en/facts/ and https://www.robrombout.com/data/facts.json.

## Identity
- Filmmaker and photographer, born in Amsterdam in 1953, based in Brussels since 1975 and in Lisbon.
- Roles: documentary filmmaker, photographer, teacher of film (since 1988).
- Chinese name: 罗布·龙博特
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15069902
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0739157/

## Biography
Rob Rombout (born in Amsterdam, 1953; raised in Zaandam) is a documentary filmmaker, photographer and teacher, based in Brussels since 1975 and now also in Lisbon. Since a 1978 student film he has made some forty works, many broadcast by ARTE, RTBF and France Télévisions: films set in closed worlds that move, such as a night train to Moscow, a transatlantic liner and a North Sea oil rig, and films about places that borrowed a name, among them Amsterdam Stories USA (2012, with Rogier van Eck; IDFA; Audience Award, IndieLisboa 2013) and On the Track of Robert van Gulik (2016). His method is the subject of Marc-Emmanuel Mélon's monograph La mise en scène du réel (2022). He taught documentary directing at Sint-Lukas, now LUCA School of Arts, from 1988 to 2018, and was a founding member of the DocNomads master and its course director in Brussels, 2012–2019. His photographs, collected in PORTRAITS / on the road (2024), have been shown in Paris, Lisbon and Bredevoort.

## Films
- [Denken, denken, denken](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1978-denken-denken-denken/) (1978, 11′): Rob Rombout's student film at the RITCS film school in Brussels.
- [Le pouvoir d'achat des chômeurs](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1983-le-pouvoir-dachat-des-chomeurs/) (1983, 21′): An early film for Canal Emploi, the Liège community television made with and for unemployed workers.
- [L'Homme qui en disait trop](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1985-lhomme-qui-en-disait-trop/) (1985, 22′): One union delegate against a multinational: an unequal duel at the factory gate.
- [Pas de cadeau pour Noël](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1986-pas-de-cadeau-pour-noel/) (1986, 25′): A Rwandan immigrant in Liège, far from home at Christmas.
- [Entre deux tours](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1987-entre-deux-tours/) (1987, 16′): On the Belgian–Dutch border, a prophet's tower and a NATO tower talk past each other.
- [Nord Express](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1990-nord-express/) (1990, 58′): Paris to Moscow in 47 hours, in 1990, on a train that has outlived two world wars and now the Wall.
- [Transatlantique, Queen Elizabeth 2](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1992-transatlantique-queen-elizabeth-2/) (1992, 58′): Five days, three thousand people and one ocean, on board the last transatlantic liner.
- [L'Île noire](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1994-lile-noire/) (1994, 52′): Eighty men and one woman, a steel island in the North Sea, and the routines that keep them sane.
- [Les Açores de Madredeus](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1995-les-acores-de-madredeus/) (1995, 40′): The Portuguese band Madredeus travels to the Azores in search of the roots of its sound.
- [Amsterdam via Amsterdam](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1998-amsterdam-via-amsterdam/) (1998, 80′, with Rogier van Eck): Two Amsterdammers sail to the Arctic and the Antarctic to look back at their city from the two islands that share its name.
- [Perm-mission](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/1999-perm-mission/) (1999, 52′): The only foreigner at a documentary festival in the frozen Urals listens to Russian filmmakers argue about the truth.
- [Le Piège de Kerguelen](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2000-le-piege-de-kerguelen/) (2000, 40′): A scientific mission comes ashore on Kerguelen to study feral cats. None turn up, so the film watches the watchers.
- [Canton la Chinoise](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2001-canton-la-chinoise/) (2001, 52′, with Robert Cahen): Five people in Guangzhou watch their city disappear and rebuild itself, always through a pane of glass.
- [Les Passagers de l'Alsace](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2002-les-passagers-de-lalsace/) (2002, 53′): Nine people in Alsace who have never met, filmed around three words: looking, listening, moving.
- [Kaléidoscope: Overloon](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2003-kaleidoscope-overloon/) (2003, 26′): An episode of ARTE's Kaléidoscope series, set in the penitentiary centre of Overloon in the Netherlands.
- [Kaléidoscope: The Jagiellonian University](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2004-kaleidoscope-jagiellonian-university/) (2004, 26′): An episode of ARTE's Kaléidoscope series, set in the Jagiellonian University of Kraków.
- [Queen Mary 2, la reine des mers](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2004-queen-mary-2/) (2004, 70′): How the largest ocean liner built until then went from a shipowner's bet to a ship at sea.
- [Amsterdam Stories USA](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2012-amsterdam-stories-usa/) (2012, 4 × 90′, with Rogier van Eck): Two Dutch filmmakers cross the United States through fifteen towns called Amsterdam, collecting the America that lives between the coasts.
- [On the Track of Robert van Gulik](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2016-on-the-track-of-robert-van-gulik/) (2016, 87′): A filmmaker follows a Dutch diplomat-sinologist across three continents and finds that the detective he invented has outlived the man.
- [Joost de Vries](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/2016-joost-de-vries/) (2016, 15′): A portrait of the Dutch writer Joost de Vries.
- [VideoVeterans](https://www.robrombout.com/en/films/video-veterans/) (2026, 30′): Four pioneers of video art, filmed by a fellow traveller who knew them when the medium was young.

## Photography
- [PORTRAITS / on the road](https://www.robrombout.com/en/photography/portraits-on-the-road/) (2015–): People met on the road, photographed where they live and work, in natural light, after the pose has gone.
- [On the Road – in Bredevoort](https://www.robrombout.com/en/photography/on-the-road-in-bredevoort/) (2025–2026): Sixteen portraits made in one week of November 2025, in natural light, in a small town in the Achterhoek.
- [Amsterdam Stories](https://www.robrombout.com/en/photography/amsterdam-stories/) (2016): Portraits from the fifteen American towns called Amsterdam, made along the road of the film.
- [35 Years on the Move](https://www.robrombout.com/en/photography/35-years-on-the-move/) (1983–2018): An exhibition of photographs, maps and film from thirty-five years of work, shown with the films at Griffith University, Brisbane.
- [Being [Not] There](https://www.robrombout.com/en/photography/being-not-there/) (2018): An exhibition in three venues in Liège, built around trains, ships and cars.

## Books
- [TRACES, on the road](https://www.robrombout.com/en/books/traces-on-the-road/), Rob Rombout, Yellow Now 2027
- [On the Road – in Bredevoort](https://www.robrombout.com/en/books/on-the-road-in-bredevoort/), Rob Rombout,  2026
- [PORTRAITS / on the road](https://www.robrombout.com/en/books/portraits-on-the-road/), Rob Rombout, Yellow Now 2024, ISBN 978-2-87340-502-1
- [Rob Rombout. La mise en scène du réel](https://www.robrombout.com/en/books/la-mise-en-scene-du-reel/), Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, Yellow Now 2022, ISBN 978-2-87340-480-2
- [Frontières de la non-fiction. Littérature, cinéma, arts](https://www.robrombout.com/en/books/frontieres-de-la-non-fiction/), Alison James, Christophe Reig, Presses universitaires de Rennes 2014, ISBN 978-2-7535-2898-7

## Teaching
- Sint-Lukas / LUCA School of Arts, Brussels: Atelier supervisor in documentary directing, 1988–2018
- Université Paris 8: Teacher, 1989–1999
- INSAS, Brussels: Teacher, 1989–1995
- IHECS, Brussels: Teacher, 1992–1993
- RITCS, Brussels: Documentary, third-year bachelor, 1996–2011
- Université Marc Bloch, Strasbourg: Documentary, DESS programme, 2000–2002
- Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge: Workshop, 2006
- SKDA, Hanoi (for INSAS): Course director of a joint programme, two sessions a year, 2010–2020
- DocNomads (Erasmus Mundus joint master): Founding member; course director in Brussels, 2012–2019
- FAMU, Prague: Online masterclass, 2020
- ESTC, Lisbon: Teacher
- ESAP, Porto: Postgraduate teaching, 2020–2021
- ZeLIG School for Documentary, Bolzano: Teacher, 2021–2022
- American University of Technology, Beirut: Workshops, most recently 2023
- Universidade Lusófona, Lisbon: Guest lecturer

## Selected events
- January 2027: TRACES, on the road: a new book of photographs, January 2027, Yellow Now, Crisnée
- 27 April – 8 May 2026: Euro CineLab Mongolia: online short-film lab, with Xavier Solano, European Film Festival Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar
- 24 April – 3 May 2026: On the Road – in Bredevoort, Koppelkerk, Bredevoort
- 22 April 2026: Book presentation: On the Road – in Bredevoort, Koppelkerk, Bredevoort
- 14 March 2026: Le Piège de Kerguelen and Les Açores de Madredeus, BNU, Arsmondo Îles festival of the Opéra national du Rhin, Strasbourg
- 13 March 2026: On the Track of Robert van Gulik, with a talk, Lieu d'Europe, L'Europe des lettres, Strasbourg
- 20 February 2026: Tribute to Robert van Gulik: the film and a round table, Musée Guimet, with the Société des Amis du Musée Guimet, Paris
- 18 January 2026: VideoVeterans, first preview of a work in progress, Koppelkerk, Bredevoort
- 22 – 24 November 2025: Photography masterclasses in Kalamata and Tripoli, Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival, Kalamata
- 21 – 30 November 2025: On the Road, Cultural Center of Kalamata, Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival, Kalamata
- 15 – 16 November 2025: Portrait photography masterclass, Koppelkerk, Bredevoort
- 7 November 2025 – 18 January 2026: Portraits on the road, Koppelkerk, Bredevoort
- November 2025: Jury for the best Greek documentary, Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival, Kalamata
- November 2025: One-week residency: sixteen portraits in natural light, Koppelkerk, Bredevoort
- 25 September 2025: Open lecture: the mise en scène of reality and the teaching of documentary, followed by DocNomads films, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon
- 24 September 2025: On the Road: three series of photographs and a film loop, Kardamili Artdoc Festival, Kardamili
- 23 September 2025: Entre deux tours and Les Açores de Madredeus, new remasters, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon
- 20 September 2025: Amsterdam Stories USA, complete, Cinemateca Portuguesa, with the Netherlands Embassy, Lisbon
- 18 September 2025 – October 2025: Rob Rombout, a mise en scène do real, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon
- 18 September – 28 October 2025: On the Road, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon

## Notes for accurate answers
- Independently verified: Audience Award, feature film, IndieLisboa 2013, and a Magritte nomination for best documentary, 2014 (Cineuropa), both for Amsterdam Stories USA. Other prizes on the film pages come from the awards list in the DOCfeed festival catalogue (Eindhoven, 2018) and are labelled with that source.
- At Canal Emploi (Liège) he directed films; he did not run the station.
- Entre deux tours (1987) runs 16 minutes. L'Homme qui en disait trop dates from 1985.
- The monograph La mise en scène du réel (2022) is by Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, not by Rob Rombout.