Isidore Bethel

Last updated
Isidore Bethel
Born
Atlanta, United States
CitizenshipUnited States
France
Education Harvard
École Normale Supérieure
SAIC
Occupations
  • filmmaker
  • professor
Years active2011–present
Works Acts of Love
What We Leave Behind
Of Men and War
Honors Filmmaker's 25 New Faces [1]
Chéries-Chéris Jury Prize [2]
DOC NYC "40 Under 40" [3]

Isidore Bethel is a French-American filmmaker who was among Filmmaker's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2020 and DOC NYC's "40 Under 40" in 2023. [4] [5] The films he edits, directs, and produces use filmmaking to make sense of overwhelming experiences and touch on recurrent themes of displacement, sexuality, aging, trauma, grief, therapy, and art-making. [6] His first feature film as director, Liam, premiered at the Boston LGBT Film Festival in 2018 and received the Jury Prize in the Documentary section of the Paris LGBTQ+ Film Festival. [7] [8] His second film, Acts of Love, which French actor Francis Leplay co-directed, premiered at Hot Docs, received the Tacoma Film Festival's Best Feature Award, and appeared on MovieWeb's list of the top LGBTQ+ films of 2021. [9] [10] [11]

Contents

Films he has edited have screened at Cannes, SXSW, and the Berlinale, in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Beirut Art Center, and the Pompidou Center, and on broadcast platforms such as POV , The New York Times' Op-Docs, and Netflix. [12] [13] [14] [15] He has worked in France, Mexico, and the United States with directors such as Dominique Cabrera, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, Juan Pablo González, Laurent Bécue-Renard, Juan Manuel Sepúlveda, Arturo González Villaseñor, Daniel Hymanson, and Iliana Sosa. [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] He has also collaborated with filmmakers in Lebanon, the United Kingdom, Ethiopia, India, and Turkey. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] He acts as a producer on many of the films that he edits, which have received support from the Sundance Institute, the Ford Foundation, Field of Vision, the CNC in France, and Mexico's IMCINE and FONCA funds. [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] Critics have characterized his editing as demonstrative of "admirable restraint," "tender," "astute," and "elegant." [34] [35] [36] [37]

A graduate of Harvard University, the École Normale Supérieure, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Bethel has received funding from the Institut Français, France's Île-de-France region, the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation, and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation as well as support from Berlinale Talents, the Tribeca Film Institute, the Villa Medici, the Gotham, Film Independent, the Logan Nonfiction Program, and Eurodoc. [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] He has taught at Stone Soup's filmmaking workshop, Sundance's Art of Editing fellowship, Sarah Lawrence College's Paris campus, La Fémis, and Parsons Paris. [51] [52] [53] [54]

Filmography

Feature films

YearTitleEditorDirectorProducerWriterNotes
2013 Grandir YesNoNoNoDirected by Dominique Cabrera. ACID Cannes. [55]
2014 Of Men and War YesNoYesNoCredited as associate producer. Directed by Laurent Bécue-Renard. Cannes Film Festival.
2016 La Balada del Oppenheimer Park YesNoYesNoDirected by Juan Manuel Sepúlveda. Best Documentary nominee at the Mexican Academy Awards. [56]
2018 Caballerango YesNoNoNoDirected by Juan Pablo González. IDFA. [57]
2018 Liam NoYesYesYesJury Prize in the Documentary section of the Paris LGBTQ+ Film Festival.
2020 So Late So Soon YesNoYesNoCredited as associate producer. Directed by Daniel Hymanson. True/False. [58]
2021 Acts of Love NoYesYesYesCo-directed with Francis Leplay. Hot Docs.
2022 What We Leave Behind YesNoYesYesDirected by Iliana Sosa. Louis Black Lone Star and Fandor New Voices Awards at SXSW. [59]
2023HummingbirdsYesNoYesNoCredited as co-producer. Directed by Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía Contreras. Generation 14plus Grand Prize at the Berlinale. [60]
2023The Taste of MangoYesNoNoNoDirected by Chloe Abrahams. BFI London Audience Award, BIFA for Best Debut Director. [61] [62]

Short films

YearTitleEditorDirectorProducerWriterNotes
2011"Someone I Love or Someone Who I Want to Be"YesYesYesYesHarvard Hoopes Prize. [63]
2013"Goat Milk"YesNoNoNoDirected by Dominique Cabrera. Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival. [64]
2016"We Eat the Earth/The Earth Eats Us"YesNoYesNoCredited as associate producer. Directed by Lucy Pawlak. Athens Digital Arts Festival. [65]
2016"We Died and Here We Are"YesNoYesNoDirected by Mohamad Kanaan. Ashkal Alwan's Video Works 2016 at the Beirut Art Center. [66]
2021"Some Kind of Intimacy"YesNoYesYesDirected by Toby Bull. Sundance London. [67]
2022"Blue Room"YesNoYesNoCredited as associate producer. Directed by Merete Mueller. AFI Fest. [68]
2022"Suddenly TV"YesNoNoNoCredited as consulting editor. Directed by Roopa Gogineni. Documentary Short Special Jury Award at SXSW. [69]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirby Dick</span> American film director, producer, and screenwriter

Kirby Bryan Dick is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best known for directing documentary films. He received Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary Feature for directing Twist of Faith (2005) and The Invisible War (2012). He has also received numerous awards from film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Zimbalist</span> American filmmaker

Jeffrey Leib Nettler Zimbalist is an American filmmaker. He has been Academy Award shortlisted, has won a Peabody, a DuPont, 5 Emmy Awards with 17 Emmy nominations. He is the owner of film and television production company All Rise Films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sundance Institute</span> American non-profit organisation

Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers from all over the world. At the core of the programs is the goal to introduce audiences to the artists' new work, aided by the institute's labs, granting and mentorship programs that take place throughout the year in the United States and internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sundance Film Festival</span> American annual independent film festival held in Salt Lake City, Utah

The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival takes place every January in Park City, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; and at the Sundance Resort, and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres. Many films premiering at Sundance have gone on to be nominated and win Oscars such as Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David France (writer)</span> American journalist and filmmaker (born 1959)

David France is an American investigative reporter, non-fiction author, and filmmaker. He is a former Newsweek senior editor, and has published in New York magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, and others. France, who is gay, is best known for his investigative journalism on LGBTQ topics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Menkes</span> American filmmaker

Nina Menkes is an independent filmmaker. Her films include The Great Sadness of Zohara (1983), Magdalena Viraga (1986), Queen of Diamonds (1991), The Bloody Child (1996), "Massacre (Massaker)" (2005), Phantom Love (2007), Dissolution (2010), and Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power (2022). Dissolution (2010) was filmed in black and white and is set in Israel. Nina Menkes' sister Tinka appears as an actress in many of them. Menkes teaches at the California Institute of the Arts in Santa Clarita, California. She has donated copies of several of her works to the Academy Film Archive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Violeta Ayala</span> Bolivian film director

Violeta Ayala is a Bolivian-Australian Quechua filmmaker, artist and technologist. Her credits include Prison X – The Devil & The Sun (2021) and the documentaries La Lucha (2023), Cocaine Prison (2017), The Fight (2017), The Bolivian Case (2015), and Stolen (2009).

Àlex Lora Cercós, better known as Alex Lora, is a disabled Spanish film director. His films, marked by complex narratives, tackle social issues and have entered hundreds of film festivals and received multiple awards and nominations around the world, most notably the three official selections at Sundance, the nomination to the Student Academy Awards, his presence at the Berlinale Talent Campus, the 2 awards of the Gaudí Catalan Academy Awards after 4 other nominations, a nomination for the Goya Academy Awards, and the nomination and the prize at the New York Emmy Awards.

<i>The Case Against 8</i> 2014 American film

The Case Against 8 is an American documentary film, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014. Directed and produced by Ben Cotner and Ryan White, the film documents the legal battle to overturn California's Proposition 8, focusing in particular on behind-the-scenes footage of David Boies and Theodore Olson during the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi</span> American film director

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi is an American documentary filmmaker. She was the director, along with her husband, Jimmy Chin, for the film Free Solo, which won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film profiled Alex Honnold and his free solo climb of El Capitan in June 2017. Their first scripted film venture was Nyad, a biopic chronicling Diana Nyad's quest to be the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuotama Bodomo</span> Ghanaian filmmaker, writer and director

Nuotama Frances Bodomo is a Ghanaian filmmaker, writer and director.

Lana Wilson is an American filmmaker. She directed the feature documentaries After Tiller, The Departure,Miss Americana, and Look Into My Eyes, as well as the two-part documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields. The first two films were nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanfu Wang</span> Chinese-born American filmmaker (b. 1985)

Nanfu Wang is a Chinese-born American filmmaker. Her debut film Hooligan Sparrow premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2017. Her second film, I Am Another You, premiered at SXSW Film Festival in 2017 and won two special jury awards, and her third film, One Child Nation, won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Wang is the recipient of a 2021 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Filmmaking, from the Vilcek Foundation.

Leilah Weinraub is an American filmmaker, conceptual artist, and the former chief executive officer of the fashion brand Hood By Air. In 2018, she was named a Sundance Institute Art of Nonfiction Fellow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Reichert</span> American filmmaker and activist (1946–2022)

Julia Bell Reichert was an American Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, activist, and feminist. She was a co-founder of New Day Films. Reichert's filmmaking career spanned over 50 years as a director and producer of documentaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alysa Nahmias</span> American director, producer, and writer

Alysa Nahmias is an American filmmaker and the founder of Ajna Films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Z Weinstein</span> American filmmaker

Joshua Z Weinstein is an American independent filmmaker based in New York City. He directed the A24 film Menashe (2017), and the feature documentaries Drivers Wanted (2012) and Flying on One Engine (2008). His director of photography credits include Bikini Moon (2017), Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me (2013), and Code of the West (2012). Weinstein was nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards and Breakthrough Director at the Gotham Awards. He has been nominated for a Cannes Lion for his advertising work and won a first place POY for his work with The New York Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajee Samarasinghe</span> Director and filmmaker

Rajee Samarasinghe is a Sri Lankan filmmaker and visual artist. His work explores a wide array of topics including the Sri Lankan Civil War, his family, and the deconstruction of documentary and narrative film.

<i>Acts of Love</i> (film) 2021 documentary-fiction film by Isidore Bethel

Acts of Love is a 2021 documentary-fiction hybrid film by Isidore Bethel and Francis Leplay that premiered in Hot Docs's Nightvision section, which focuses on future "cult classics."

Elizabeth Woodward is an American film producer and founder of Willa. She has produced On The Divide (2021), You Resemble Me (2021), and Another Body (2023).

References

  1. ↑ "Isidore Bethel". Filmmaker Magazine 25 New Faces of Independent Film. 19 October 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  2. ↑ "Documentaire: Liam, d'Isidore Bethel". University of Évry Val d'Essonne . Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  3. ↑ "Isidore Bethel - DOC NYC". DOC NYC 40 Under 40. 21 October 2023. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  4. ↑ "Isidore Bethel". Filmmaker Magazine 25 New Faces of Independent Film. 19 October 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  5. ↑ "Isidore Bethel - DOC NYC". DOC NYC 40 Under 40. 21 October 2023. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  6. ↑ "Isidore Bethel – Projects". Isidore Bethel. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  7. ↑ "WORLD PREMIERE: Liam". Wicked Queer Boston LGBT Film Festival. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  8. ↑ "Chéries-Chéris : Grand Prix pour " Les Moissonneurs " et deux films brésiliens au palmarès". Komitid. 27 November 2018. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  9. ↑ "Acts of Love". Hot Docs . Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  10. ↑ "TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS". Tacoma Film Festival. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  11. ↑ "Top 10 LGBTQ+ Movies of 2021". Top 10 LGBTQ+ Movies of 2021. 26 December 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  12. ↑ "Hummingbirds". Berlinale . Retrieved 21 January 2023.
  13. ↑ "Troubled Veterans Recount War's Horrors in POV Documentary 'Of Men and War'". POV . Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  14. ↑ "Blue Room". The New York Times . 13 December 2022. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
  15. ↑ "100 Must-See Documentaries Streaming on Netflix This October". Nonfics. 4 October 2016. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  16. ↑ "Les Films autobiographiques de Dominique Cabrera". Potemkine Films. Archived from the original on 23 October 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  17. ↑ "The Staircase: Last Chance, Credits". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  18. ↑ "Caballerango". Full Frame Documentary Film Festival . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  19. ↑ "OF MEN AND WAR (DES HOMMES ET DE LA GUERRE)". Cannes Film Festival . Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  20. ↑ "List of Selected Projects, Screenings 2015". Cinéma du Réel . Retrieved 25 October 2015.[ permanent dead link ]
  21. ↑ "Arturo Gonález Villaseñor". Logan Nonfiction Program. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  22. ↑ "'So Late So Soon' Review: Aging Artists Face Realities of Mortality and Marriage in Beautiful Doc". IndieWire . 19 November 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  23. ↑ "Lab Alumni: 2020 Documentary Projects & Fellows". The Gotham Film & Media Institute . 30 August 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  24. ↑ "Video Works 2016". Ashkal Alwan . Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  25. ↑ "Some Kind of Intimacy". British Council . Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  26. ↑ "Shadow of His Wings: Doc Lab Fellows Level Up (and You Could be Next)". Film Independent. 19 September 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  27. ↑ "The Gotham Announces 20 Projects and Selected Fellows for The 2021 Documentary and TV Series Labs". The Gotham Film & Media Institute . 27 May 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  28. ↑ "Bazaar Protocol". IMDb . Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  29. ↑ "Sundance Institute: Over Half a Million Dollars to Documentary Projects". Sundance Institute . Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  30. ↑ "Ford Foundation Announces 2019-2020 JustFilms Documentary Grantees". Ford Foundation . 16 December 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  31. ↑ "Iliana Sosa's beautiful feature WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND will have its world premiere at #SXSW 2022!". Field of Vision . Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  32. ↑ "Sélections Cannes - 20 films d'avance sur recettes : un record historique". CNC . Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  33. ↑ "La cinta mexicana "La balada del Oppenheimer Park" compite en..." 20 minutos . Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  34. ↑ "True/False 2020 Dispatch 1: The Viewing Booth, So Late So Soon, That Cloud Never Left". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  35. ↑ "So Late So Soon". The DocYard. Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  36. ↑ "'What We Leave Behind' Review: A Filmmaker's Lyrical and Gripping Tribute to Her Grandfather". The Hollywood Reporter . 29 September 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  37. ↑ "Daniel Hymanson 25 New Faces of Independent Film". Filmmaker . 19 October 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  38. ↑ "MANUEL SEPULVEDA". Riviera Maya Film Festival. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  39. ↑ "Cooke Alumni Buzz". Jack Kent Cooke Foundation . Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  40. ↑ "HORS LES MURS : LAURÉATS 2016". Institut Français . Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  41. ↑ "AIDES À L'ÉCRITURE DE SCÉNARIO : 23 AUTEUR.TRICE.S SOUTENU.E.S". Film Paris Region. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  42. ↑ "LAURÉAT DE LA BOURSE 2013". Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  43. ↑ "JACK KENT COOKE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES 2014 GRADUATE ARTS AWARDS RECIPIENTS". Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  44. ↑ "ISIDORE BETHEL EDITOR, PRODUCER". Berlinale Talents . Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  45. ↑ "Isidore Bethel". Tribeca Film Institute . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  46. ↑ "Call for Entries Aristoteles Workshop". Aristoteles Workshop. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  47. ↑ "IFP Announces Documentary Projects For Its Annual IFP Labs". Independent Filmmaker Project . 23 May 2017. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  48. ↑ "Shadow of His Wings: Doc Lab Fellows Level Up (and You Could be Next)". Film Independent. 19 September 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  49. ↑ "Logan Nonfiction Program Announces 12th Class of Journalism & Documentary Fellows". Logan Nonfiction Program. 24 March 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  50. ↑ "EURODOC Current Cycle Participants". Eurodoc. Archived from the original on 6 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  51. ↑ "Portraits of Self and Others: An Introduction to Short-Form Filmmaking with Isidore Bethel". Stone Soup . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  52. ↑ "Isidore Bethel". Logan Nonfiction Program. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  53. ↑ "Play is a Very Serious Thing". Talkhouse . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  54. ↑ "Cooke Alumni Buzz". Jack Kent Cooke Foundation . 12 February 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  55. ↑ "GRANDIR (Ô HEUREUX JOURS)". ACID. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  56. ↑ "La Balada del Oppenheimer Park". La Casa de la Universidad de California en México . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  57. ↑ "Caballerango". IDFA. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  58. ↑ "True/False 2020 Dispatch 1: The Viewing Booth, So Late So Soon, That Cloud Never Left". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  59. ↑ "I Love My Dad, Master of Light Win Top Feature Prizes at SXSW". Filmmaker . 16 March 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  60. ↑ "Berlin: 'Adolfo', 'Hummingbirds' Win 2023 Generation 14Plus Sidebar". Hollywood Reporter . 25 February 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  61. ↑ "67th BFI London Film Festival brings in record audience and announces LFF Audience Award winners". British Film Institute . Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  62. ↑ "Winners & Nominations The Awards 2023". British Independent Film Awards . Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  63. ↑ "85 Undergraduates Receive Hoopes Prize". The Harvard Crimson . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  64. ↑ "Goat Milk". Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  65. ↑ "Videonale 16: Festival for Video and Time-Based Arts". Athens Digital Arts Festival . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  66. ↑ "Video Works 2016". Ashkal Alwan . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  67. ↑ "SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL: LONDON ANNOUNCES BIGGEST LINE-UP TO DATE". Sundance Film Festival . Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  68. ↑ "Blue Room Short Film Competition". American Film Institute . Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  69. ↑ "Suddenly TV". SXSW . Retrieved 19 March 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.