Associação Cultural Videobrasil

Rob Rombout is regarded as one of Europe's most original video documentarist. He was born in Amsterdam, in 1953, and being a dutch just like Jori Ivens, and from his predecessor he retained the notion of the reality dramatization in building documentaries. Rombout graduated by the RITCS, a well-known cinema university from Brussels, city where he lives and teaches at the St.Lukas and INSAS schools; he is also a collaborator teacher at the University of Paris VIII and at ONM, the latter being in Netherlands. He was director of the Liage's Educational TV between 1982 and 1988 when he began to direct documentaries for BRT - Belgium Radio and Television, and for the Emploi Channel.

The first films be made were an attempt to halt the current rumors about the unemployment world and later on he opted for the author video, which was greatly fashionable at that time and allowed him to be, alone, the editing master. However, he states to feel closer to the 16 mm-documentarists than the videoart, but it should be considered that the video offers the safety and reliability required for the beginners. His choice to privilege the social nature within reality results from his passion for the individuals, something more isolated and particular than the interest for a social problem itself. His images of marginal men struggling with dignity against the social cruelty are very touching. In spite of his humanity, Rombout states that one of the characteristics required for the social cinema is the lack of affection and a step back in relation to the characters - resulting from an awareness, not indifference - as the director is not supposed to approach in such a way to get contaminated by an excess enthusiasm, what would make him lose transparency of the situa- tions and the genuine relationship with his characters. The film is centered around the director's ideology, however an effort is to be made so that this appears as a suggestion only, so that the invitation to reflection replaces an evident explanation.

Rombout's characters live solely in the present as if reality was made up only by the moment's immediacy; leaving curiosity always open, tied to the global atmosphere, is also a manner to avoid boredom, with the game of progressive discovery being integrated with the movie's general construction. The director is used to saying that, by leaving the elements in the dark, one may escape from a possible setback. His work progresses by successive touches, just like the expressionists, and exposes not the truth but the immediate expression - and, therefore, arbitrary - of feelings; it always moves from the general to the particular, from the global subject to the character, and the film always presents a compatibility between its first impression and its totality. Since the beginning everything is planned and Rombout draws all preliminary plans, thus allowing him to sequentially gather the missing elements to keep the cohesion and accuracy of the whole. Pas de cadeau pour Noel is a well-known example following an arithmetic structure of subdivisions by axis which multiply themselves all around it; the past/present, day/night, social life/actual life dichotomies correspond to the different logics of the characters' existence.

The reality, to Rombout, is more important than fiction, therefore his projects for a near future are associated with the accomplishment of educational films; as he enjoys to mix up different genre, he says he may include a humorous touch on them.

ASSOCIAÇÃO CULTURAL VIDEOBRASIL. "10th Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival": 20th to 25th November 1994, São Paulo, Brazil, 1994.