Five Questions from Quarantine: Ruben Goots
Founding Partner and Executive Producer at HAMLET, Ruben Goots, is impressed by his WFH view, would like to be locked down with a trio of artists and understands that health is the current priority.
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What's your self-isolation set-up at the moment?
Seated at my beloved grandfather’s desk, who fought during WWII, I feel quite invincible. And with the view from my home office, which is considerably better than what I’m used to in our Hamlet office, my mood is changing with the tides of the weather for the moment. Luckily we’ve had some sunny weather these last two weeks.
It's lockdown; aside from your family, which four people, past or present, would you most like to be quarantined with?
Why not spend some time with these guys? Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat [below, left to right]. They inspired each other creatively during exciting times, something I could use and would appreciate as well during these strange times.
But the fourth person would without a doubt be my cleaning lady, who isn’t coming in any more for understandable reasons. With this bunch of misfits in my house, I think I would need her more than ever. She is my real hero!
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We need entertainment, what's your favourite short film?
That would be Black XXX-Mas, a short film that I produced in 1999 when I was in my early 20s. Let’s call it a bout of nostalgia triggered by this (probably) life-altering corona crisis. As mentioned in the comment section on YouTube: it contains BLOOD, VIOLENCE, GORE and NUDITY, so watch at own risk.
Credits
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- Director Pieter van Hees
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Credits
powered by
- Director Pieter van Hees
- Producer Ruben Goots
Credits
powered by
- Director Pieter van Hees
- Producer Ruben Goots
You've completed Netflix. And Amazon Prime. And Disney+. It's on the hard stuff; board games. What do you pick?
I’d pick Guess Who?. I’d replace all the picture names with the names of our directors. No need to replace the heads. They already look like the real ones. And as we will be in isolation for such a long time, everyone will win at least once. Yeah! That means that everyone will also lose 47 times. Oops... I miss them all so much already !
On a serious note, how do you think this situation will impact you individually, and the industry as a whole?
You can’t help but feel some resignation. Probably a general feeling as we are all in the middle of this together and living the same problems - so we’re not alone. There is no denying that this situation is, and will be, dramatic for our industry, but today our health should be our first and only priority. We all have our part to play in defeating the spread of the virus, so there is not even any question around the fact that we need to comply with the strict measures, individually, and in our businesses as well.
I don’t think that we’re all of sudden going to reinvent everything about the process.
Personally, I think we should not make too much of a fuss with the whole rhetoric of reshaping the industry and our businesses. There will be learnings, of course, and perhaps we’ll emerge back into the new functioning world with a fresh set of eyes and all be open to some different ways of doing things, but I don’t think that we’re all of sudden going to reinvent everything about the process.
