I was born, grew up and studied film making in Brussels, Belgium.
For several years, I trained as a camera assistant, and was lucky enough to work for acclaimed directors such as Ken Loach, Jaco Vandormael, David Mackenzie… and assist their great cinematographers, Chris Menges, Robbie Ryan, Christophe Beaucarne, Barry Ackroyd to name but a few…Watching these guys at work was a real privilege and a great source of inspiration.
My first breakthrough as a DOP was in the Belgian/Romanian documentary “WAITING FOR AUGUST” directed by Teodora Mihai. During the course of a year, we followed the life and aspirations of Georgiana, a 15 year old teenager, who was catapulted head of her family, after her mum was forced to leave her seven kids behind to find some work in Italy. The film went on to win the prestigious Best International feature Documentary prize at Hotdocs (Toronto) in 2014, Best International Documentary at Karlovy Vary, a European Film Award nomination as well as 12 other prizes around the Globe.
In the same year, I was lucky enough to meet Jonathan Littell, the Goncourt prize winner 2006, and with him, dive into the complex story of Joseph Koni’s Lord Resistance Army, a rebel and mystical movement in northern Uganda that grew by kidnapping teenagers - more than 60,000 over 25 years. “WRONG ELEMENTS” was presented at Cannes 2016 in official selection.
After shooting three shorts together, Belgian director and friend Guérin Van de Vorst and I teamed up again in 2017 to shoot our first narrative feature together, “LA PART SAUVAGE”, starring the excellent Vincent Rottiers. The film was nominated at the Magrittes 2018, in the Best First Feature section.
After that everything went pretty quickly and opportunities kept knocking at the door. “POUR VIVRE HEUREUX” by Salima Glamine & Dimitri Linder had his Première in Rome and honoured by three prizes at the FIFF 2018, “THE MERCY OF THE JUNGLE” by the Rwandese director Joel Karekezi, starring Marc Zinga and Stephane Bak, after being premiere at Toronto, went on to win the Golden Stallion at the FESPACO 2019, probably the most important film festival in Africa. I then met the multi disciplinary and cosmologic artist Baloji with who I embarked on several musical and short projects in Congo (“ZOMBIES” - “PEAU DE CHAGRIN/BLEU DE NUIT”). We are currently shooting AUGURE his fist feature set between Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, RDC.
I recently shot “THE WALL”, by Philippe Van Leeuw (Insyriated) starring the wonderful Vicky Krieps, and teamed up with Belgian DOP, Virginie Surdej to frame “DREAMING WALLS”, a documentary by Amélie Van Empt & Maya Duverdier about the iconic Chelsea Hotel in NYC, produced by Martin Scorcese. The film premiered at La Berlinale (Panorama) in Europe and at the Tribeca Film festival in the US.
EMAIL —
j.philippe@hotmail.com
PHONE —
+32 472 35 32 88
REPRESENTATION —
by me…
RESUME —
EQUIPMENT—
I co-founded, with director and friend, Didier Minne, the Brussels ‘s based rental company, Kinodoc. Check us out !
