MICHEL REILHAC

Michel Reilhac is currently Executive Director of Arte France Cinéma and Director of Film Acquisitions for ARTE France.

He was previously Executive Director of Forum des Images in Paris, General Manager of the American Centre in Paris and of the National Theater of Chaillot in Paris, Executive Director of the National Centre for Contemporary Dance in Angers, France.

He was also a producer-curator-author through his own organisation,”Les Arts Etonnants” (Amazing Arts) of participatory events such as:

– “Les Arts Etonnants 92”, an interactive exhibition of time-based works by Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, Andreas Heinecke (Dialogue in the Dark), Stephen Taylor Woodrow

– Dark/Noir based on darkness as a medium (Avignon Festival 93, Paris 94)

– Le Bal Moderne (The Modern Ball) in 1993, 1994 and 1995 in Paris (Chaillot) and on ffffffff tour

ffffff– Le Goût du Noir (A taste of darkness), dinners in full darkness with blind people in ffffffff1999 in Paris.

He directed his first documentary film All alike? in 1998. The film was shown in several festivals and on Canal + TV. He is the author of a film for Canal +, To be a Man, aired in April 1999 and of a documentary, Kenya Islands, for Arte that aired in the year 2000.

He started his own production company, MELANGE in 2000, producing several documentaries for French television. His first film production, Licia Eminenti’s first short, Intimisto, was the opening film in the Official Competition at the Venice Biennale in 2001. He also produced a weekly talk show in complete darkness, filmed with infra red cameras for French television, called Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner?.

Michel has also produced three international feature films: Cry Woman by Chinese director Liu Bing Jian (Un Certain Regard at Cannes) and The Good Old Naughty Days (Directors fortnight at Cannes), which he also directed, and 7 days, 7 nights by first time Cuban director/writer Joel Cano.

From 1998 to 2000, Michel was Chairman of the Fonds Sud in Paris, France – a special fund set up by CNC (National Centre for Cinema) to support filmmaking in all countries that have no real support for their own local filmmakers (in South America, Asia and Africa).