Biography
From film to artificial intelligence
My journey, my passion, my vision
“Cinema was never a career I chose. It has always been part of who I am.”
Biography
My journey, my passion, my vision
“Cinema was never a career I chose. It has always been part of who I am.”
Looking back at the road travelled, I realise how fortunate I've been to live through every major revolution in film and video. I started with a Super 8 camera, then came 16mm, professional analogue video, digital, high definition, visual effects, and now artificial intelligence. Yet through all these technological shifts, one thing has never changed: the pleasure of telling stories.
Mine isn't a story of career change. It's the story of a passion that grew for more than forty years before becoming the heart of my professional life.
Chapter 1
I don't remember the day I fell in love with cinema. I simply have the feeling this passion has always been there. My father gave me my first camera, a Super 8, when I was ten years old. I started out filming remakes of movies I'd seen at the cinema.
At a time when digital didn't exist yet, every reel of film was expensive. Every shot had to be thought through, every movement planned, every mistake cost you film. Without realising it, that constraint taught me discipline.
Very quickly, I discovered 16mm. There, I learned the importance of framing, light, image composition and staging — that cinema wasn't just about recording images, but about building a language.
Chapter 2
Very soon, this passion outgrew the family setting and became a real activity. I worked for a production company in Marseille, where I made industrial and educational films, and commissioned work. Every project was different, every shoot brought its own challenges, and every encounter helped me grow.
Then I left for military service. When I came out, having lost touch with that network of contacts, I tried to get back into the industry — without success. It was only afterwards, when an opportunity came up to join an energy company, that my life took a completely different path. That diversity, detours included, became my real school. I learned that a good director must, above all, know how to listen, observe, and understand the needs of the people he creates for.
A wedding can't be replayed. An emotion can't be repeated. Cinema often tells the story of life itself.
On wedding and christening films, a formidable school of filmmaking
Chapter 3
Alongside these professional productions, I made a great many wedding and christening films. For me, they were a formidable school of filmmaking.
You have to be in the right place at the right time, anticipate a glance, catch a smile, a tear, a quiet gesture that can say more than a long line of dialogue. Those years taught me to observe people and turn a string of moments into a coherent, moving story.
Chapter 4
Like many directors, I started with the most accessible format: the short film — a formidable school that forces you to get to the essential. Sur l'échelle de Hynek (2013, 5 international awards) and then Overcast (2014, 9 international awards, Top 10 on Viewster's 2014 ranking) let me define my style before moving on to feature films.
Watching those films then travel the world, distributed internationally, is an immense reward for an independent director.
Premiere of Sans Peur (Roads of Fear), with the film's cast and crew
Chapter 5
Over the years, my films have been selected at numerous international festivals and received more than 60 awards worldwide, 49 of them for Sans Peur (Roads of Fear) alone, with theatrical releases in France and Poland, TV and VOD distribution, and dubbing in 5 languages. But I believe these honours reward the collective work above all — a film is never the achievement of one person alone.
These awards confirmed a deep conviction of mine: independent cinema, when carried by a strong vision and a committed team, can find its place on the international stage.
Chapter 6
To develop the projects I believed in, I needed to keep real creative freedom. That conviction led me to found INDEPROD Films in 2020, a production company through which I work as a screenwriter, producer and director. Then, as new technologies accelerated, I founded ESA Visual Studio in 2026 — the culmination of my entire journey, bringing together more than forty years of experience in image, directing, editing, visual effects and new technologies.
I'm convinced artificial intelligence will never replace a director's eye.
A tool is only ever as good as the way it's used
Chapter 7
Among all the projects I'm developing today, White City holds a special place. In development, co-produced by Crystal Lake Entertainment (Sean S. Cunningham) and INDEPROD Films, this feature film represents the synthesis of everything I've learned over the years: storytelling, directing actors, production, visual effects, music — and of course, artificial intelligence.
At the same time, I'm preparing Dark Patch Origins, an entirely reimagined new version of Dark Patch, so I can finally deliver on my original vision. Released in 2017 in a cut that wasn't mine, the first version was handed over to an international distributor under conditions that, for lack of experience at the time, I failed to properly gauge. Nine years into its distribution, I have yet to see a single euro in revenue. A costly lesson, learned the hard way. This new version is set for release in late 2027 (excluding the US).
My ambition is to show that it's now possible to produce ambitious independent cinema by combining creativity, innovation and mastery of today's tools.
Chapter 8
My commitment isn't limited to my own productions. As president of the Association Française du Cinéma Indépendant (AFCI) — the association behind the Saint-Mitre-les-Remparts International Independent Film Festival (SMR13), founded in 2016 — I also serve as its artistic director, aiming to give directors, producers and writers a space to meet, exchange ideas and screen their work.
Ten editions have taken place so far, with the eleventh in preparation, backed by patrons such as John Carpenter, Sean S. Cunningham, Patrice Leconte, Olivier Marchal and Gérard Krawczyk.
I've always believed cinema should remain a place for sharing — discovering new talent, encouraging collaboration, building bridges between generations.
Chapter 9
As cinema took up an increasingly important place in my life, I also chose to build a solid professional career. I started out as a skilled worker, and over the years took on new responsibilities, eventually finishing my career as a project manager, overseeing fibre-optic projects for all the national operators. From 1993 to 2022 — twenty-nine years in total.
Rigour, organisation, project management, leadership, change management — all qualities that serve me daily today in film production.
It never felt like work. I was simply learning what I loved.
Weekdays at the office, evenings and weekends behind the camera
Chapter 10
Each new technology opened up a new way to tell stories differently. I've never been satisfied with what I already knew how to do.
Chapter 11
After twenty-nine years in the industry, in 2022, it became clear: cinema was no longer just a passion, it had become my true calling.
Deciding to leave a stable position wasn't easy. But I knew there are moments in life when you have to choose between comfort and your dreams. I chose my dreams. I have never regretted that decision.
Chapter 12
I already had several decades of experience behind a camera. But I wanted to test that experience against today's methods and gain official recognition of my skills.
In closing
When I think back to the young enthusiast discovering Super 8, I can measure how far I've come. Yet I still approach every new project with the same curiosity as when I started, because I believe you never stop learning — and that the best story is often the one still waiting to be told.
The story continues…
