French nationality

Hervé Cohen is an award winning documentary filmmaker and videographer. His work has taken him to various parts of the world from the Casamance in Senegal where he filmed the initiation ceremony of the young Diolas ("Sikambano, the sons of the Sacred Woods") to the countryside of Sichuan, China, to follow the work of three traveling projectionists ("Electric Shadows"). His films have been aired on television networks around the world and featured at various prestigious festivals. Hervé Cohen just recently co-directed with filmmaker wife Guetty Felin "Closer to the Dream" on the Obama movement through inspirational stories of ordinary individuals across America. He is currently developing his upcoming project "Life Underground" (tentative title) a feature-length impressionist documentary film about the connected lives of subway riders in various parts of the world, for which he was recently awarded a writer's grant from "La Société des Auteurs"(Writer's Guild) in France.

FILMOGRAPHY
Writer/Director/Videographer

"Closer to the Dream" - 2008 (Also videographer). 52 min. and 101 min. a BelleMoon/AMIP/France5 Production. A journey inside the Obama movement through the inspiring stories of ordinary Americans.

"Visages d'Europe" (Faces of Europe), an Arte series - 2007 (Also videographer)
- Antonio. 26 min. A traveling film projectionist in the south of Portugal, mad about cinema and Italian actresses and the films of Jacques Tati. (Also videographer).

- Serafina. 26 min. (Also videographer). Given her charm and charisma, Serafina Izzo could have been a great Fellini actress, but instead lives amongst 3000 olive trees and produces one of Europe's best organic olive oils.

Back to School. (Also videographer). 45 min. 2006. for "Wide Angle" a PBS production (New York) - 2003. A follow up of Time for School 3 years later, portraying the same seven children after their first 3 years of school in seven different countries. Directed and shot the Benin and India segments.

Paskal, en attendant les Anges. (Also videographer).14 min, 2004. A Collectif 2004 Images production for a cultural exhibit "Haïti en Seine". Portrait of Paskal, an artist from Jacmel, Haiti.

Time for School. (Also videographer). 45 min. for "Wide Angle" a PBS production (New York) - 2003. Seven children in seven different countries experience their first year of school. Directed and shot the Benin segment.

Maintenant ou Jamais, à l'école de la deuxième chance. 52 min. 2002. France 5. The trials and tribulations of 5 young adults who have been given a second chance at education after having dropped out of school several years prior.

Paris, Mars 1999. (Also videographer). 24 min. The series "Paris, Mois par Moi". TV5 (francophone international television consortium). In 1999, 12 filmmakers month by month, each one portraying, his own vision of the last year of the century in Paris. (Also videographer).

Une Autre Vie... 57 min. 1996. (Also videographer). Planète, French documentary channel. An intimate film about the history and the exile of the Algerian Jews seen through the personal stories of Hervé Cohen's own family. (Also videographer)

Les Minots du Panier. 49 min. 1995. (Also videographer). Planète. The gentrification of an immigrant neighborhood in Marseilles seen through the eyes and lenses of a group of children learning photography. Shown at the Lussas festival in France. (Also videographer).

Coney Island, Paradis du New York Populaire. 12 min., 1995. France 3.
The people who make America's oldest amusement park, the number one summer attraction in New York City for the most watched weekly televised documentary program "Faut Pas Rêver".

Antonio Paradiso. 12 min. 1994, Betacam. France 3, "Faut Pas Rêver".
Portrait of the last traveling film projectionist in Portugal.

Electric Shadows. 26 min. 1993, 16 mm. Canal Plus. Three traveling film projectionists showing films to the peasants, in the Chinese provinces. Aired on several European channels and on ABC the Australian channel, distributed by Icarus Films in the US non-theatrical release. First prize in: Oberhausen Film Festival, Leipzig Film Festival, Germany, Estonian Film Festival, and Montecatini in Italy. Shown in Festival du Reel in Paris, Rio de Janeiro Film Festival, Sydney film festival, Margaret Mead, etc...

Sikambano, the Sons of the Sacred Woods. 53 min. 1991, Betacam. ARTE. The rites of passage in a Diola village in Casamance, south Senegal, of a 28 year old soon to become a "Sikambano", an initiated man. Also aired on "Planète", NHK in Japan, TV de Catalunya in Spain. Special mention at the Jean Rouch Festival in Paris, selected by the Margaret Mead Film Festival in New York and Festival dei Popoli in Florence, Italy.

VIDEOGRAPHER

Rokia Traoré, voice of a new generation, by Laurens Grant. Grantman production USA 2005. Shot in Paris and Senegal.

Retour aux Sources. 45 min. 2004. ARTE. Documentary by Christopher Walker. Shot in the Arnhem territory, North of Australia.

Young, Muslim and French. 45 min. 2004. For "Wide Angle" PBS (New York) and France 2. Shot in Paris.

The Promise of Pre-School by John Merrow, PBS. Oct. 2001. Additional images in Paris.

DERRIDA by Amy Ziering Kofman and Kirby Dick - Second camera on the Paris shoot. Spring 2001.

Pari Métis by Elsie Haas. 13x13 min. documentary series. TV5. 1999-2000. Shot in Paris, New York, Mauritius Island, Ivory Coast.

Harold Singer, Keep The Music Going. 58 min. 1999, by Guetty Felin. "Muzzik" channel and Planète. Paris.

Faut-il juger Duvalier ? by Elsie Haas. 1999. TV5. A documentary about the necessity of judging the Haitian, ex-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier. Paris.

Videographer for the Steven Spielsberg's Shoah Visual History Foundation. 1997/1998
Testimonies of the survivors of the holocaust. New York.