Who is Peet?

Peet Gelderblom is an award winning director and editor from the Netherlands with years of experience in films, documentaries, drama, television, commercials, video essays, music videos and online content. He’s a sharp visual storyteller and conceptual thinker, a good listener and a reliable force on any set, big or small. With his keen sense of style, mood, drama and composition, he’s an expert at giving audiovisual content the exact look and feel it needs.

Peet knows how to tell a story lightly with humor and musicality, but also how to properly treat sensitive subjects like sexual violence, failed justice, bullying, psychosocial problems, palliative care or the challenges of modern agriculture. He will just as easily work from a script as purely observe. And if the project calls for it, he loves to use different techniques like CGI, miniature cinematography or VR.

Films

Peet’s archival fiction feature WHEN FOREVER DIES (“A thousand films in one”–De Volkskrant) is a groundbreaking transformative work that proved itself a crowd-pleaser by winning the Audience Award at CineAutopsia in Bogota. Cleverly assembled from fragments of both classic and forgotten movies – most of them found in the EYE Filmmuseum archives – it tells the story of two star-crossed lovers trapped in a kingdom of shadows, fighting to keep their love alive as they gradually fall in hate. The film was officially selected by Il Cinema Ritrovato, Thessaloniki, Film Fest Ghent and the Netherlands Film Festival. The soundtrack (co-composed by Peet) has been nominated for a Buma Award. WHEN FOREVER DIES is available on VOD via Eye Film Player and Vimeo On Demand.

In 2016, Peet’s re-cut of Brian De Palma’s RAISING CAIN became the first fan edit ever to be crowned official Director’s Cut. The re-cut was so much to De Palma’s liking that he let Peet supervise a restoration for an internationally praised Blu-ray release, nominated for a Saturn Award.

OUT OF SYNC, his short fiction film starring Romijn Conen, Marieke de Kruijf and Beau van Erven Dorens, screened at numerous festivals worldwide, received an award in Milan and was elected Vimeo Staff Pick.

Commercials & Branded Content

His commercial portfolio includes work for clients like Google, KPN, Philips, Schiphol Airport, Universal Pictures, TomTom, Samsung, Spotify, Old Amsterdam, AfterPay, Kijkwijzer, Autodrop, Buienradar, Mora, Crystal Clear, Bosch, Canon, Maaslander, Sportlife, Bang & Olufsen, Shoeby and Hunkemöller.

THE ROAD TO CHANGE for Rabobank received two Golden Heron awards for Creativity and Innovation and Best Film of the Year. According to the jury: “The visuals, music and acting are top notch and a sign of workmanship.”  SCREWED for Bloemen.nl made it onto the shortlists of the ADCN and the Young Directors Award in Cannes. Peet won the Socutera Award for a public announcement for the Dutch Brain Disease Foundation in 2007.

Broadcast & Streaming

For Prime Video he directed the 6-part true crime documentary, PACT WITH THE DEVIL, which almost immediately jumped to the #1 spot in the Netherlands. It chronicles the longest-running liquidation trial in the history of The Netherlands and interrogates nearly all the main players: lawyers, criminals, prosecutors, crime journalists, judges, heads of police and the Dutch Minister of Justice. The series has been praised as “courtroom TV with Shakespearean allure.”

Peet’s work for broadcast and streaming includes documentaries, drama, programs, leaders, promos and press presentations for nearly every Dutch public and commercial tv-channel. He worked with talent as diverse as Ruby Wax, Beau van Erven Dorens, Sophie Hilbrand, Tim Hofman, Art Rooijakkers, Waldemar Torenstra, Johnny de Mol, Geraldine Kemper, Lauren Verster, Katja Schuurman, Tim Haars, Fred van Leer, Cornald Maas, Bridget Maasland, Erik van der Hoff, Linda de Mol, Patrick Lodiers, Renate Verbaan, Natasja Froger, Rudolph van Veen and Sebastiaan Labrie.

The personality travel show WAAR IS DE MOL was nominated for the Sound & Vision Awards and Peets STATION ID’s for Talpa received a Bronze Button in 2006.

Shadow Career

Peets filmmaking is often inspired by his other creative pursuits, such as writing, music, comics and photography.

He recently self-published the photographic novel HEROIC NUDITY, now available at Gumroad. His satirical comic strip DIRECTORAMA, which Hollywood filmmaker Don Mancini called “Doonesbury for cineastes,” was serialized in Smallformat magazine.

Between 2004 and 2008, Peet was the founding editor of 24LiesASecond, a now-defunct film criticism platform for which he wrote numerous articles. A personal blog and a long string of video essays followed, for websites such as RogerEbert.com, IndieWire, Little White Lies, Fantômas, Fandor, Film School Rejects and Slant. His movie mash-up series PRETTY MESSED UP had a 6-episode run on Fandor and Filmscalpel. Several of these film-related productions were selected as Vimeo Staff Pick and screened at festivals.

Peet studied Graphic Arts in Rotterdam and briefly worked as a copywriter and desktop publisher. In his twenties he was the singer in the funk band Dirty Laundry and as Man After Midnight he continues to make music today.