Gabrielle Claes

Gabrielle Claes was the Curator [Director] of the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique, where she succeeded Jacques Ledoux, from 1989 to 2011. She had first joined the documentation department of the Cinémathèque in the 1970s, before working in film production and distribution for a while. She came back to the Cinémathèque in 1979 to lead the Musée du Cinéma (the Cinémathèque's cinema). At the time of her appointment in 1989, she was Deputy Curator in charge of the Musée du cinéma. Claes was actively involved in the FIAF Programming and Access to Collections Commission (PACC) in the 1990s, and was a FIAF Executive Committee member from 1995-99. She was also one of the founders of the ACE (Association des cinémathèque européennes) in the 1990s, and was its first President.