Caillat François
born in 1951
director, critical, filmmaker, videographer
Philosophy professor, François Caillat launches into directing short films, documentaries, as Chambre noire: five paintings of Pierre Soulages. In 1997, he discusses the feature film with a triptych around the memory and landscape themes that are dear to him. This trilogy, La Quatrième génération (1997), on his own family saga, Trois soldats allemands (2001) and L'Affaire Valérie (2004) is intended for television and broadcast on Arte. His second film, L'Homme qui écoute (2000) is a journey documented in the sound world again broadcast on Arte. The same year, he got down to the mechanisms of language acquisition with Naissance de la parole. His documentaries are screened in many festivals where they are greeted with interest by the public and out very often rewarded.
When not behind a camera, he led several activities, always related to documentary filmmaking. He directs the collection Cinéma documentaire (publication of debates, critical essays, screenplays) by Editions L'Harmattan, he wrote in 2006 The style in documentary filmmaking and is cofounder of the collective Gulliver to promote documentary films and French foreigners.
In 2007, Francois Caillat performs Bienvenue à Bataville, his first feature film. On the screens in September 2008, this documentary traces the social utopia of Thomas Bata and economic history of its plants and employees.