In 1990, Claire Pijman graduated in cinematography from the Film Academy in Amsterdam. Since then, she has been working as a cinematographer for documentaries and fiction. She photographed feature films such as ‘Jermal’ by Ravi Bharwani (premiere at IFFR) and ‘Good Morning Karachi’ by Sabiha Sumar. The documentary ‘Dinner with the President,’ exploring Musharraf and reforms in Pakistan, premiered at TIFF.
In addition to her work as a Director of Photography (D.o.P.), she also directs (and shoots) various documentaries, including ‘Foot on the Moon,’ on the set of ‘Dancer in the Dark’ where Lars von Trier used 100 cameras, and ‘Talking Guitars,’ a documentary about a Dutch guitar builder crafting guitars for artists like Jackson Browne and Paul Simon.
She considers Robby Müller one of her most significant sources of inspiration. This resulted in her most recent feature documentary, ‘Living the Light-Robby Müller.’ A film about Robby Müller and his work, based on his personal archive. This film competed at the 75th Venice Film Festival and received the Golden Calf for Best Feature Documentary at the NFF in 2019. Currently, Claire is working on various documentaries as a cinematographer and is also developing new projects as a director.