Jean Estevez

I come from a small village in the South of France, a few miles away from Montpellier. My father was a contracter who worked on various infrastructure projects throughout France, and much of my childhood was spent travelling around the country in my family’s trailer, taking in new landscapes and meeting new people. While in secondary school, I discovered the cinema and became mesmerized with the films of the Nouvelle Vague, Billy Wilder, Jacque Tati, Emir Kusturica, among so many others. I went on to study directing at the F.A.M.E. school and acting at the prestigious Cours Florent in Paris. I have written, directed and produced several short films, most recently Fahrenheit 99, which is loosely based on Anton Chekhov’s 1878 play Platonov, and was screened in New York and Oakland as a finalist in The Book Was Better Film Festival in 2016. In the past few years, I have also turned to photography as a form of self-expression; my series "Where the Wild Things Are" explores intrusions of the animal world in everyday life. Deeply influenced by Surrealism, I am currently at work on a series of short films based on Henri Michaux’s Plume stories.