Frédéric Tcheng is a French film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He is best known for his documentaries ''

Dior and I ''Dior and I'' (french: Dior et moi) is a 2014 French documentary film written and directed by Frédéric Tcheng about designer Raf Simons' creative work for Christian Dior S.A. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on 17 April 2014. I ...

'', ''

Halston Roy Halston Frowick (April 23, 1932 – March 26, 1990), known mononymously as Halston, was an American fashion designer who rose to international fame in the 1970s. His minimalist, clean designs, often made of cashmere or ultrasuede, were ...

'', and ''Invisible Beauty''.

Life and career

Tcheng was born and raised in

Lyon, France Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...

. After studying engineering in Paris, he moved to New York City where he obtained a Masters of Fine Arts from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's film school in 2007. His first foray into documentary was the 2008 documentary '' Valentino: The Last Emperor'', which he co-produced and co-edited. In 2011, he was the writer and co-director of '' Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel'', which premiered at the

Venice International Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

. Tcheng’s solo directorial debut, ''

'', premiered at the 2014

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

. The acclaimed documentary focuses on

Raf Simons Raf Jan Simons (; born 12 January 1968) is a Belgian fashion designer. Beginning in furniture design, Simons launched his own menswear label in 1995. He was creative director at Jil Sander (2005–2012), Christian Dior (2012–2015), and Calvin K ...

’ first haute couture collection for

Dior Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior (stylized DIOR), is a French Luxury goods, luxury fashion house controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH, the world's largest luxury group. Dior itself holds ...

. Also in 2014, he served as a jury member at the

Warsaw film festival Warsaw Film Festival ( pl, Warszawski Festiwal Filmowy, abbreviated as WFF) is an annual film festival held every October in Warsaw, Poland which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries from all around the world. The festival ha ...

and CPH:DOX. From 2018 to 2019, he served as a filmmaking mentor for

Queer art Queer art, also known as LGBT+ art or queer aesthetics, broadly refers to Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary visual art practices that draw on LGBT, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender+ imagery and issues. While by definitio ...

, a non-profit arts organization that serves a diverse community of

LGBTQ+ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

artists. In 2019, he directed the documentary ''

'' for

CNN Films CNN Films is a motion picture division of CNN under Warner Bros. Pictures. originally launched in 2012. Its first film, ''Girl Rising'' premiered in spring 2013 in the United States. History On October 8, 2012, CNN announced the creation of CNN ...

and

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

. The film reframes the story of the American designer

as a business thriller and premiered at

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

. Tcheng’s latest film, ''Invisible Beauty'', about model and activist

Bethann Hardison Bethann Hardison is an American fashion model and activist. Hardison is well known for being one of the first high profile black models after her appearance at the 1973 Battle of Versailles fashion show. She is also known for her activism on di ...

, premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Tcheng co-wrote and co-directed the film, along with Hardison. Tcheng also served as an editor on the second season of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

series ''

Making a Murderer ''Making a Murderer'' is an American true crime documentary television series written and directed by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. The show tells the story of Steven Avery, a man from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who served 18 years in pri ...

'', and a cinematographer on the documentary '' King Georges''.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * French film directors French screenwriters French cinematographers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Columbia University School of the Arts alumni {{France-film-director-stub