Jean Perret

Jean Perret
Documentary Skills
Visiting Lecturer (2024)

Jean Perret, French and Swiss, was born in Paris in 1952 and lives in Geneva.

He is the author of an important number of publications and gives seminars and lectures, in Switzerland and abroad, about semiotics, aesthetics, society and “cinéma du réel” (reality cinema), a term he prefers to “documentaries”.

He was the producer of a Swiss-French Television programme featuring creative independent documentaries. He is member of many juries and commissions and strongly supported the development of an innovative film policy in Switzerland.

From 1990 to 1994, he oversaw the section “Critic’s Week” at the Locarno International Film Festival. He was also President of the Swiss National Association of Film Journalists.

In 1995 he became Director of the Nyon Festival, which was renamed “Visions du Réel”. This festival soon became one of the most important on an international scale.

Jean Perret has been responsible for film projects conceived in collaboration in Japan, China, Germany, Israel and Palestine, and other countries.

In 2010, after 16 years of Visions du Réel, he decided to move to the HEAD - Geneva University of Art and Design, where he was in charge till August 2018 of the Film Department / cinéma du reel of the University of Art and Design of Geneva, with three main options: to teach (but what and how?), to conceive public events (to share, to open debates), to think in a renewed articulation theory & practice - two books published by the Department, one dedicated to the Essay form in contemporary art and film, the second is an Anthology of texts about editing/montage.

Since then, he is an independent lecturer, writer and consultant for the GoldenEgg Production company.