Luc Jacquet Biography

MARITAL STATUS
Professions Director , Screenwriter , Actor more
Nationality French
Birth December 5, 1967 (Bourg-en-Bresse)

BIOGRAPHY
Luc Jacquet’s passion for animal and plant fauna dates back to his young age, which he spent in the Ain mountains, south of the Jura. During his studies, he turned towards a scientific career. In 1991, he completed a master’s degree in animal biology at the University of Lyon I, followed by a DEA in management of natural mountain environments at the University of Grenoble in 1993. It was as part of his scientific training that he has the opportunity to go on a first trip to Antarctica for fourteen months. At the age of 24, he set off on a polar ornitho-ecology mission for the CNRS, in the company of the Swiss director Hans Ulrich Schlumpf, for whom he acted as cameraman for the film The Congress of the Penguins. After this experience, he abandoned his scientific studies to become a director in his own right.

He spent his next three years in the Southern Islands and Antarctica, while making documentaries such as The Leopard Seal: The Ogre’s Part and Of Penguins and Men . In the early 2000s, he considered making his first feature film, which in 2005 gave birth to the triumphant March of the Emperor . More than 1.8 million French spectators are moved by the survival of emperor penguins in the most inhospitable lands on the planet. The film grossed more than $127 million worldwide, becoming the second biggest success of all time in the documentary genre across the Atlantic. In 2006, this public success was coupled with critical success with the winning of the Oscar for best documentary.

In 2007, Luc Jacquet made his second docu-fiction through The Fox and the Child . The film tells the story of a wild friendship that blossoms between a little red-haired girl and a fox in the Ain mountains. More classic in appearance, the feature film is nevertheless inspired by the careful observations made by its director. The public responded once again with more than two million entries.

Three years later, Luc Jacquet created an NGO called Wild-Touch intended to support projects highlighting environmental challenges. Supported by sponsorship and various partnerships, the association gives a voice to those involved in environmental protection. A pioneer of the approach, the documentary maker called on the association to produce a short film entitled It Was the Rain Forest and highlighting the work of botanist Francis Hallé . Their collaboration gave birth to a new feature film in 2013: Once Upon a Forest, where Luc Jacquet aims to retrace the birth of tropical forests over more than seven centuries, aided in his approach by a mixture of real shots and computer graphics.

In 2015, the director highlighted another scientist, Claude Lorius , with La Glace et le Ciel . The upheaval of global warming and its consequences for Antarctica are at the heart of this new documentary, which sees an old explorer looking back on his past discoveries. The film is presented at the closing of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.