Isidore Bethel | |
|---|---|
| Born | Atlanta, United States |
| Citizenship | United States France |
| Education | Harvard École Normale Supérieure SAIC |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2011–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] Gotham nominee [4] |
Isidore Bethel is a French-American filmmaker who was among Filmmaker's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2020 [5] and DOC NYC's "40 Under 40" in 2023. [6] The films he edits, directs, and produces use filmmaking to make sense of overwhelming experiences and tackle recurrent themes of displacement, sexuality, aging, trauma, grief, therapy, and art-making. [7] His first feature film as director, Liam, premiered at the Boston LGBT Film Festival in 2018 [8] and received the Jury Prize in the documentary section of the Paris LGBTQ+ Film Festival. [9] His second film, Acts of Love, which French actor Francis Leplay co-directed, premiered at Hot Docs, [10] received the Tacoma Film Festival's Best Feature Award, [11] and appeared on MovieWeb's list of the top LGBTQ+ films of 2021. [12]
Films he has edited have screened at Cannes, SXSW, and the Berlinale, [13] in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Beirut Art Center, and the Pompidou Center, and on broadcast platforms such as POV , [14] The New York Times' Op-Docs, [15] and Netflix. [16] He has worked in France, Mexico, and the United States with directors such as Dominique Cabrera, [17] Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, [18] Juan Pablo González, [19] Laurent Bécue-Renard, [20] Juan Manuel Sepúlveda, [21] Daniel Hymanson, [22] and Iliana Sosa. [23] He has also collaborated with filmmakers in Lebanon, [24] the United Kingdom, [25] Ethiopia, [26] India, [27] and Turkey. [28] He acts as a producer on many of the films that he edits, which have received support from the Sundance Institute, [29] the Ford Foundation, [30] Field of Vision, [31] the CNC in France, [32] Doc Society [33] , Film4 [34] and The Whickers in the UK, [35] and Mexico's IMCINE and FONCA funds. [36] Critics have characterized his editing as demonstrative of "admirable restraint," [37] "tender," [38] "astute," [39] "energized yet never rushed," [40] and "elegant." [41]
He has served on juries for the Paris LGBTQ+ Film Festival, [42] the Chicago International Film Festival, [43] and the National Film Festival for Talented Youth. [44]
A graduate of Harvard University, [45] the École Normale Supérieure, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, [46] Bethel has received funding from the Institut Français, [47] France's Île-de-France region, [48] the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation, [49] and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation [50] as well as support from Berlinale Talents, [51] the Tribeca Film Institute, [52] the Villa Medici, [53] the Gotham, [54] Film Independent, [55] the Logan Nonfiction Program, [56] and Eurodoc. [57] He has taught at Stone Soup's filmmaking workshop, [58] Sundance's Art of Editing fellowship, [59] Sarah Lawrence College's Paris campus, La Fémis, [60] and Parsons Paris. [61]
| Year | Title | Editor | Director | Producer | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Grandir | Yes | No | No | No | Directed by Dominique Cabrera. ACID Cannes. [62] |
| 2014 | Of Men and War | Yes | No | Yes | No | Credited as associate producer. Directed by Laurent Bécue-Renard. Cannes Film Festival. |
| 2016 | La Balada del Oppenheimer Park | Yes | No | Yes | No | Directed by Juan Manuel Sepúlveda. Best Documentary nominee at the Mexican Academy Awards. [63] |
| 2018 | Caballerango | Yes | No | No | No | Directed by Juan Pablo González. IDFA. [64] |
| 2018 | Liam | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Jury Prize at the Paris LGBTQ+ Film Festival. |
| 2020 | So Late So Soon | Yes | No | Yes | No | Credited as associate producer. Directed by Daniel Hymanson. True/False. [65] |
| 2021 | Acts of Love | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-directed with Francis Leplay. Hot Docs. |
| 2022 | What We Leave Behind | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Directed by Iliana Sosa. Louis Black "Lone Star" and Fandor New Voices Awards at SXSW, [66] Gotham nominee. [67] |
| 2023 | Hummingbirds | Yes | No | Yes | No | Credited as co-producer. Directed by Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía Contreras. Generation 14plus Grand Prize at the Berlinale, Independent Spirit nominee. [68] [69] |
| 2023 | The Taste of Mango | Yes | No | No | No | Directed by Chloe Abrahams. BFI London Audience Award, [70] BIFA for Best Debut Director, [71] BAFTA longlist. [72] |
| Year | Title | Editor | Director | Producer | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | "Someone I Love or Someone Who I Want to Be" | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Harvard Hoopes Prize. [73] |
| 2013 | "Goat Milk" | Yes | No | No | No | Directed by Dominique Cabrera. Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival. [74] |
| 2016 | "We Eat the Earth/The Earth Eats Us" | Yes | No | Yes | No | Credited as associate producer. Directed by Lucy Pawlak. Athens Digital Arts Festival. [75] |
| 2016 | "We Died and Here We Are" | Yes | No | Yes | No | Directed by Mohamad Kanaan. Ashkal Alwan's Video Works 2016 at the Beirut Art Center. [76] |
| 2021 | "Some Kind of Intimacy" | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Directed by Toby Bull. Sundance London. [77] |
| 2022 | "Blue Room" | Yes | No | Yes | No | Credited as associate producer. Directed by Merete Mueller. AFI Fest. [78] |
| 2022 | "Suddenly TV" | Yes | No | No | No | Credited as consulting editor. Directed by Roopa Gogineni. Documentary Short Special Jury Award at SXSW. [79] |
| 2025 | "Rehearsal for an Encounter" | Yes | No | Yes | No | Directed by Dahee Kim. New/Next Film Festival. [80] |
| 2025 | "Wi Cyah Stay" | Yes | No | Yes | No | Directed by Nordia Hunt. Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. [81] |