Jo Röpke

Jo Röpke was born in Gent on 4 October, 1928. He majored in economics at Ghent State University (RUG) and was researcher at Brussels' ULB (1953-1958) and assistant professor at his alma mater RUG (1958-1962); then he specialized in film, teaching at the Hoger Rijksinstituut voor Toneel en Cultuurspreiding (HRITCS, also known as RITS). In 1962 Jo Röpke joined the Flemish public broadcast TV as freelancer and director, and after a year succeeded Roland Verhavert as presenter of the weekly movie program Première, watched by tens of thousands of movie lovers, and soon transformed it from a serial 'publicity' format to more critical reviews, however in a mild humoristic style, of over 12,000 pictures till his retirement in 1991; since he was constantly plagued by serious health problems. Röpcke was also film critic at Studio Brussel (public radio), correspondent en critic with some film magazines, sat on the board of the Vereniging van Journalisten van de Periodieke Pers (written press journalism society) and in the jury of various film festivals. Finally, even after his retirement he presided the modest, Belgian-Brussels International Film Festival, in which capacity he annually attended the leading, French Cannes Festival, where he also died.