CATHERINE BELKHODJA

'Catherine Belkhodja' is a French artist, actress and film director.

Contents

Biography

Career

Cinema

Television

Writing

Filmography

Feature films

Short films

Television

Theatre appearances

Publications

Personal works

Collective works

Literary rewiews

Links

Biography

Catherine Belkhodja was born in Paris to a Kabyl Algerian father and a French mother on 15 April 1955. She first lived and studied in Algiers where she started to write her first short stories. She went on studying the theatre, music and fine arts, took her first steps in the cinema and left for Paris to read architecture, philosophy, town planning and ethnology of Maghreb.
She graduated in philosophy and began earning her living as a teacher, then read architecture, specialising in bioclimatics and working in the town planning department of the Paris Prefecture. She later took aesthetics with Olivier Revault d'Allones at the Sorbonne University, prior to leaving for Belgium to further her studies in solar architecture, then for Egypt to work with Hassan Fathy on earth architecture.
Catherine Belkhodja is well travelled, with a passion for Asia which she has toured extensively: Japan , China , Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, South Korea, the Maldives, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Hong-Kong (China), Taiwan and Macao (China). She has also toured Turkey, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and South Africa.
She has five children, all in the film industry or acting business:

★ Maïwenn Le Besco, actress, scriptwriter and film director.

★ Jowan Le Besco, actor, film director and chief cameraman.

★ Isild Le Besco, actress, scriptwriter and film director.

★ Leonor Graser, actress, scriptwriter, researcher, lecturer at the Sorbonne University (Cultural Mediations Dpt)

★ Kolia Litscher, actor

Career

Catherine Belkhodja’s activities range from the cinema and television to conceptual art, as well as journalism, philosophy and writing.

Cinema

On her return to Paris from Egypt, she enrolled at the Paris Academy of Dramatic Art and took her first steps in the cinema under Claire Devers in "Noir et Blanc" ''(Black and White)'', Guy Gilles in "Nuit docile" (''Docile night)'', Jean-Pierre Limosin in "L'autre nuit" ''(The other night)'' and Benoît Peeters in "Le compte-rendu" ''(The Report)''. She was the central character in Chris Marker’s Silent Movie and Level Five, in which she was said to epitomise a traveller in the monochromatic universe of silent movies.
She has given cinema courses in Lebanon.

Television

Catherine Belkhodja has collaborated on a number of television programmes, like Moi-je, Sexy folies, Mosaïque, Envoyé Spécial, Des racines et des ailes, Faut pas rêver, Océaniques.
While working on a television programme, she was noticed by Philippe Alfonsi, who asked her to present a new magazine he was setting up with Maurice Dugowson and invited her to help in its conception. Thus came to life Taxi, a talk show in which Catherine Belkhodja and her guests would sit a Cadillac driven by night around Paris. The programme was awarded a Sept d'or by the French television profession.
Following the success of this programme, Chris Marker gave her the role of a journalist in Level Five (1997). She then left for Algeria to make her first documentary “Reflet perdu du miroir”, the story of twin sisters who meet again after a long separation.

Writing

Catherine Belkhodja published her first newspaper articles in ''Le Sauvage'' and ''Sans frontières'' and wrote her first script on her return from Egypt. She has worked as a reporter for the Gamma Agency, has also collaborated with such magazines as ''L'autre journal'' and ''La légende du siècle'', has founded a new magazine specialising in Asian issues and collaborated with gastronomy, tourist and travel magazines.
She has refocused her activities on writing and regularly publishes her texts in literary reviews such as ''Alter texto'', ''Hakaî'', ''Poète'', ''Carquois'', ''les Cahiers de Poésie'', ''Gong''.
'KAREDAS'
She has founded KAREDAS, a company dedicated to film production and publishing, and has launched a kaiseki collection dedicated to haiku. To inaugurate this collection, she has called on Yves Brillon, a Canadian haidjin who won two awards in the 2005 and 2006 haiku competitions organised by KAREDAS and the Japanese Cultural Centre in Paris. Catherine Belkhodja is currently running a haiku writing workshop on the Psychologies magazine website, in which she has presented initiation keys to haiku writing.
'Marco Polo magazine international haiku competition'
This yearly competition set up in 2005 rewards the best haiku writers from ten countries.

★ 18 May 2005: inaugural award ceremony at the House of Japan in Paris under the aegis of the Japanese Embassy in Paris.

★ 25 November 2006: 2nd award ceremony at the Franco-Japanese Cultural Centre in Paris.

★ 4 May 2007: 3rd award ceremony at the Tenri Centre, in the framework of the 9th edition of Printemps des Poètes whose theme was love.

Filmography

Feature films

★ 1980: ''La chanson du mal aimé'' by Claude Weisz

★ 1981: ''Le Cadeau'' by Michel Lang

★ 1982: ''Pour cent briques, t'as plus rien'' by Eduardo Molinaro

★ 1984: ''Une maille à l'endroit, une maille à l'envers'' by Madeleine Laïk

★ 1986: ''Nuit docile'' by Guy Gilles

★ 1986: ''Noir et blanc'' by Claire Devers

★ 1988: ''L'Autre nuit'' by Jean Pierre Limousin

★ 1996: ''The Proprietor'' by Ismail Merchant

★ 1996: ''Level Five'' by Chris Marker

★ 1997: ''Silent Movie'' by Chris Marker

★ 1998: ''La Puce'' by Emmanuelle Bercot

★ 2001: ''Roberto Succo'' by Cédric Kahn

Short films

★ 1976: ''L'Étourdie'' by Annie Bertini

★ 1980: ''Fragments du discours amoureux'' by Denis Lazerme

★ 1984: ''Le Compte-rendu'' by Benoît Peeters

★ 1985: ''Procès de l'oeuf'' by Catherine Belkhodja

★ 1989: ''Clip New Order'' by Chris Marker

★ 1990: ''Yoyo'' by Catherine Belkhodja - Music score: Gabriel Yared

★ 1991: ''Cinéma'' by Catherine Belkhodja - Music score: Gabriel Yared

★ 1991: ''Place des Vosges'' with Isild Le Besco and Kolia Litscher

★ 1993: ''Parfaitement imparfaite'' by and with Catherine Belkhodja

Television

★ 1981: ''Point de rencontre'' by Michel Favart

★ 1983: ''Der Fahnder'' by Erwin Keusch (Bavaria)

★ 1985: ''Studio Lavabo'' by de Patrick Bouchitey (Canal +)

★ 1986: ''Double - Face'' by Serges Leroy

★ 1987: ''Marc et Sophie'' by Stéphane Barbier and Guy Gingembre

★ 1988: ''Les hommes de bonne volonté'' from a novel by Jules Romain

★ 1989: ''L'héritage de la chouette'' by Chris Marker

★ 1990: ''Berliner balade'' by Chris Marker (voice)

★ 1987: ''Reflets perdus du miroir'' with Maïwenn Le Besco and Isild Le Besco

Theatre appearances

★ 1980: ''Bernarda’s House'' by Federico Garcia Lorca - Théâtre de La Villette - directed by Youssef Hamid

★ 1982: ''Pheadra'' - Théâtre de l'Atopie - directed by Norbet Heinbûrger

★ 1986: ''Le voleur d'autobus'' - Théâtre Yerma - directed by Youssef Hamid

Publications

Karedas

★ ''L'ombre du caméléon'' by François Roche (Architecture, distributed by the Institut français d'architecture)

★ ''Correspondance anachronique'' by Nam & Sor (essay)

★ ''Peintures'' by Dominique Maraval (Art plastique collection)

★ ''D'un instant à l'autre'' by Yves Brillon (Haiku, Kaiseki collection)

★ ''Amas d'étoiles'': collective work by award winners of MARCO POLO 2005 haiku competition (Haiku - Kaiseki collection)

Personal works

★ ''Nuits blanches aux roches noires'', Karedas, Kaiseki collection, Paris, 2007.

Collective works

★ ''Haïdjins francophones'', Karedas, Kaiseki collection, Paris, December 2007

★ ''Amas d’étoiles'', Karedas, February 2007, Paris

★ ''Regards de femmes'', AFH, to be published, Lyon, 2008

★ ''Dix vues du haiku'', AFH to be published, Paris 2007

Literary rewiews

★ ''Forcer à quitter'' (tanka), Haikai, Canada, June 2006

★ ''Roches noires'' (juinku), Haikai, Canada, December 2006

★ ''L’araignée de fer'', Carquois n°18, Canada, June 2006

★ ''Les félins attaquent les ombres'' (hankasen with Diane Descôteaux), Haikai, Canada, August 2006

★ ''Rêve d’octobre en juillet'' (kasen with Diane Descôteaux), Haikai, Canada, October 2006

★ ''Sic vitam hominum'' (kasen with Diane Descôteaux), Haikai, Canada, December 2006

★ ''Talon d’Achille'' (with Diane Descôteaux), Haikai, Canada, April 2007

★ ''Poumon cru'' (jusanbutsu with Pascale Baud), Haikai, Canada, October 2006

★ ''Mélodie en sous-sol'' (jusanbutsu with Pascale Baud), Haikai, Canada, December 2006

★ Haïkus allemands, traductions et commentaires, Gong n°12, July 2006

★ Petite leçon de haïku, Psychologies Magazine, Paris, January 2007

★ Self-bind mini-book (Conception), Marco Polo magazine n°12, Paris, November 2006

★ ''Écho d’Asie'', haiku press review, Marco Polo magazine n°12, Paris, November 2006

★ ''Haïku : dans l’air du temps'', Marco Polo magazine n°13, Paris, September 2007

★ Les cahiers de poésie 6, Luxemburg, 2006 - ISBN 2-916090-68-1

★ Les cahiers de poésie 7, Luxemburg, 2006 - ISBN 2-916090-71-1

★ Revue Alter texto, New Caledonia, April 2006

Links

★ [1]: her filmography on actricesdefrance.org

★ [2]: her filmography on Unifrance French cinema promotion in English

★ [3]: filmography on Movies . New York Times

★ : filmography on DVD toiles with photos

★ catherinebelkhodja.free.fr: her personal website

★ catherinebelkhodja.eu: publications

★ Interview de Catherine Belkhodja: an interview by Michelle Levieux for L'Humanité

★ Marco Polo magazine