Biography

Photo: © Leni Deinhardstein.

Born in 1964 in Brussels, Belgium, Borgers first studies Journalism at the University of Brussels, then moves to San Francisco to further study directing and producing. In 1989, she wins the Student « Documentary Writing » award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She becomes an executive producer and a director at ATRIOM Production, a San Francisco-based company. She moves back to Europe in 1992 and starts her career as independent filmmaker. She writes and directs award-winning documentaries with various production companies in France, Belgium, and Austria.

Her most renowned and rewarded films are

• Truth Under Siege, (1994), a feature length documentary about the resistance of journalists in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia during the 1990s war. It won the GOLDEN GATE JURY PRIZE at the San Francisco International Film Festival 1995 and BEST FILM award at the Buenos Aires Ars Electronica Festival 1995.
• Greyhound, one-way ticket (1998), a road movie questioning the American dream.
• Citizen Krone (Kronenzeitung, Tag für Tag ein Boulevardstück, 2002), an immersion in Austria’s most-read newspaper to reveal its role in the rise of Jörg Haider’s far right populist party.
• Winds of sand, women of rock (2009), the tale of a tradition carried out by Tubu women in the Sahara. It won “Best Documentary” at the WATCHDOCS Festival, Warsaw, 2010, and a “Coup de coeur” at the International Environmental Film Festival (Paris).
• Greetings from the colony (2011), the story of Suzanne, the child of a colonial State agent and an African woman in a time when interracial unions were banned. The film won BEST DOCUMENTARY both in Rwanda 2012 and Benin 2013, was selected ÉTOILE of the Scam 2012 (French Author Association), got a SPECIAL JURY PRIZE at the Festival Lumières d’Afrique, Besançon 2012, a PRIX DE LA MEMOIRE at the Ecollywood Festival, Lille, 2012, and was a NOMINEE for Documentary at the Magritte du Cinéma, Belgium 2013.
• Catching Haider (2015), revealing the populist system developed by Austria’s ex-far right politician Jörg Haider. It won a “Special Mention” at the dok.fest in Munich.
• The Remains – After the Odyssee, a story about the dead and the missing of the Mediterrean migrant route. It won BEST DOCUMENTARY at the Diagonale (Graz, Austria) 2019.

Besides her activity as a film writer and director, Borgers also acts as an expert in seminar about DOCUMENTARY PROJECT DEVELOPMENT in various countries in Europe, Turkey, and Africa. She gives Masterclasses in these places as well as in the USA.

Besides, Borgers co-founded LES FILMS DE LA GRELUCHE, a Paris-based production company in 2001, where she was C.E.O. and delegate producer until 2007. In Austria since 2011, she has been curating two Theatrical Documentary Series, DIE VERGESSENEN, showing films about often overlooked subject matters or people, and kontroversiell!, showing films whose form, aesthetic choices, or content arouses controversy. Both Series are aimed at a general public and consist of screenings followed by a debate with the director and other experts.