The Flaherty Think Tank is a group of filmmakers and film teachers who advocate for more practice-based and innovative filmmaking in film schools worldwide.
The Crew
The Flaherty Think Tank consists of 5 founders and over 20 “compagnons de route” who all embark on this journey with us.
Our Philosophy
Robert Flaherty was a pioneer of documentary filmmaking in his time. The genre has much evolved but we can still learn and be inspired by Flaherty’s practice.
Workshops and Seminars
Twice a year, we organise a workshop in summer and a seminar in winter to which we invite members, students and tutors alike to exchange and learn from each other.
The Making of Flaherty Revisited
Founders and Tutors
Rob Rombout
John Burgan
Eleni Chandrinou
Philippe Van Meerbeeck
Philippe is a Brussels-based screenwriter and former TV executive with an extensive track record in creative development of documentary projects. Philippe lectures documentary at Ghent University. He is also the vice president of NONA Arts Center, Mechelen and a former member of EBU Documentary Group, European Documentary Network, National Coordinator for INPUT. Philippe attended IDFA, Hot Docs, Sunny Side, TDF, CoPro, Documentary Campus, Jihlava Docs, Lisbon Docs, Story Doc, and has an extensive tutoring experience in Belgium, Germany, France, Netherlands, Greece, Turkey a.o. Former Senior Policy Advisor at VRT Corporate Strategy and VRT Media. Track lead Education at VRT Sandbox, boosting collaborative innovation with startups & SMEs. Former member of the Flemish Commission for Audiovisual Arts and the Documentary Commission of the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF).
Marlene Dirven
Eva Küpper
Eva is a Belgian film director who graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Gent with the feature-length documentary ‘Whatʼs in a Name’, premiered at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto and won several prestigious prizes, including the IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary. Eva wrote and directed the film ‘Gardenia, Before the Last Curtain Falls’ together with German-Canadian director Thomas Wallner. The film is co-produced by ZDF/ARTE and CANVAS and won the Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs FF 2014. In 2013 Eva started working on ‘Between the Devil and my Deep Blue Skin’, a feature documentary received with great acclaim and an audience of nearly 400,000 when broadcasted in March 2016. ‘Dark Rider’ (2021) is her feature documentary film set in Australia, co-produced by BR/ARTE, CANVAS, RTBF and supported by the Media Fund and VAF. Eva lectures documentary at the Ghent University and is board member of the Flemish Author’s Association ‘de Auteurs’.