Michael Pitiot (born 14 July 1970) is a French

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

and

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

. He lives and works in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Life and career

Michael Pitiot shot his first reportages in

Zaïre Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

in 1991. He was then recruited as audiovisual attaché at the French embassy in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, responsible for cooperation with radio and television in

Ho Chi Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

, a position he occupied from 1993 to 1998. From 1998 to 2000, he travelled back to France aboard a

Chinese junk A junk (Chinese: 船, ''chuán'') is a type of Chinese sailing ship with fully battened sails. There are two types of junk in China: northern junk, which developed from Chinese river boats, and southern junk, which developed from Austronesian ...

christened ''Sao Mai'' and specially built for the journey, with Marielle Laheurte and a team of 30 volunteers from widely differing backgrounds (including the former naval lieutenant Pierre Guillaume, also known as ''Crabe-Tambour''). He produced a documentary for France2 and wrote two accounts of this expedition. From 2001 to 2003, alongside senior reporter Arnaud de la Grange, he organised a circumnavigation of Africa with 12 well-known writers including Erik Orsenna,

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio Jean-Marie is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Jean-Marie Abgrall (born 1950), a French psychiatrist, criminologist, specialist in forensic medicine, cult expert, and graduate in criminal law * Jean-Marie C ...

and

Jean-Christophe Rufin Jean-Christophe Rufin (born 28 June 1952) is a French doctor, diplomat, historian, globetrotter and novelist. He is the president of Action Against Hunger, one of the earliest members of Médecins Sans Frontières, and a member of the Académi ...

. He also directed a documentary series on this literary and journalistic voyage entitled ''Portes d’Afrique'', for

Arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...

. In 2003, he filmed a road movie through the former Soviet empire in Super8 with Laurent Lepesant that took him to

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. In 2004 he wrote an account of a voyage to

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

to discover its temple carpenter-builders with the illustrator Cloé Fontaine, who later became his wife. Starting in 2006, he wrote a film script with journalist Daniel Duhand on the forgotten history of the «Poilus d’Alaska» (huskies) in 1915. The same year he joined Tara Expéditions to develop documentaries of its mission. In parallel, in 2009 he published a history of piracy, illustrated by Ségolène Marbach. In 2010, he produced a documentary series in four episodes for France Télévisions on the Tara Oceans mission, co-written with Thierry Ragobert and Frédéric Lossignol and with original music by Gérard Cohen-Tannugi. Shortly afterwards he met the ecologist and photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand, with whom he co-produced '' Planet Ocean'', a feature-length documentary about man and the ocean. This film, produced thanks to the support of the Omega brand, won the Best Cinematography Award at the Monterey Blue Festival (California, USA). This was the first film produced during a four-year collaboration which also gave birth to three new feature-length documentaries with

Yann Arthus-Bertrand Yann Arthus-Bertrand (born 13 March 1946) is a French environmentalist, activist, journalist and photographer. He has also directed films about the impact of humans on the planet. He is especially well known for his book ''Earth from Above'' (19 ...

: ''Méditerranée'' in 2013, which looks at the development of human civilisations in the Mediterranean basin, with the voice of

Gérard Darmon Gérard Darmon (born 29 February 1948) is a French- Moroccan actor and singer. Personal life He was the second husband of actress Mathilda May (mother of his two youngest children). He has three children: Virginie (born 1968) and, by May, daug ...

and

Hiam Abbass Hiam Abbass ( ar, هيام عباس, he, היאם עבאס; born 30 November 1960), also Hiyam Abbas, is a Palestinian actress and film director. Personal life Hiam Abbass was born in Nazareth, Israel, to a Muslim Arab family. She was raised ...

; ''Algérie'', an emotional journey to the heart of

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

, narrated by

Jalil Lespert Jalil Lespert (born 11 May 1976) is a French actor, screenwriter and director. Life and career Born to an ethnic French (Pied-Noir) father, actor Jean Lespert, and an Algerian mother, who is an attorney and a jurist, Lespert first studied law, ...

. The film was aired in

and

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

the same day in July 2015 ; and ''TERRA'', the sequel of '' Planet Ocean'', a film dedicated to the story of mankind and life, narrated by

Vanessa Paradis Vanessa Chantal Paradis (; born 22 December 1972) is a French singer, model, and actress. Paradis became a child star at the age of 14 with the international success of her single "Joe le taxi" (1987). At age 18, she was awarded France's hig ...

. ''Terra'' was premiered in December 2015 for the

COP21 The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Conve ...

and available worldwide on

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 ...

by 2016. In parallel, Michael Pitiot has devoted his time to writing fictional projects.

Filmography

* 2001 : L'Odyssée de Sao Mai, 52 minutes,

France 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 A ...

* 2003 : Durban Zulu, 26 minutes,

* 2004 : Rivages d’Afrique, Côte Est, 52 minutes, Voyage * 2005 : Rivages d’Afrique, Côte Ouest, 52 minutes, Voyage * 2006 : Poilus d’Alaska, 90 mn, with Duhand et Jampolsky,

Radio-Canada The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

* 2008 : Tara, journey to the climate machine, 90mn, Roblin and Ragobert,

* 2009 : Au cœur d’une expédition polaire, 52 minutes,

Planète A planet, in astronomy, is one of a class of celestial bodies that orbit stars. (A dwarf planet is a similar, but officially mutually exclusive, class of body.) * For articles on specific types of planet, see List of planets Planet or Planets ma ...

* 2010 : The great Bloom, 52 minutes, France3,

Pathé Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...

* 2010 : The Sacred Pact, 52 minutes, France3,

* 2010 : The secret world, 52 minutes, France3,

* 2011 : A lost Alliance, 52 minutes, France3,

* 2012 : Tara Ocean, journey to the sources of life, 90 min,

France5 France 5 () is a French free-to-air public television channel, part of the France Télévisions group. Principally featuring educational programming, the channel's motto is ''la chaîne de la connaissance et du savoir'' (the knowledge network). ...

* 2012 : Planet Ocean, with Y. Arthus-Bertrand, 90min,

France2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 Ap ...

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

* 2013 : Mediterranean with

, 90 min,

France2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 Ap ...

* 2015 : Algeria, with Y. Arthus-Bertrand, Yazid Tizi,

, 90min,

France2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 Ap ...

* 2015 :

Thalassa Thalassa (; grc-gre, Θάλασσα, Thálassa, sea; Attic Greek: , ''Thálatta'') was the general word for 'sea' and for its divine female personification in Greek mythology. The word may have been of Pre-Greek origin. Mythology According t ...

. Le Climat, with Christophe Cousin, 110 min, France3 * 2016 : Terra, with Y. Arthus-Bertrand,

, 90 min,

France2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 Ap ...

* 2017 : Maroc vu du ciel, 90 minutes, France Télévision, with Ali Baddou and

, France Télévisions * 2018 : Orient-Express, (script only) by Louis-Pascal Couvelaire, 90 min,

* 2018 : Men from Earth, with Laurent Stocker, 100 min, BBC,

France Televisions France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

* 2019 : Egypte vue du ciel, 90 min, with

Pio Marmaï Pio Marmaï (born 13 July 1984) is a French actor. He has appeared in more than twenty films since 2008. Early life and education Marmaï was born on 13 July 1984. His mother is a former costume designer at the Opéra de Strasbourg, and his f ...

* 2020 : In conversation with

Eileen Gray Eileen Gray (born Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith; 9 August 187831 October 1976) was an Irish architect and furniture designer who became a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture. Over her career, she was associated with many notable Euro ...

, 24 min,Bard Graduate Center Eileen Gray Screening PR
/ref> Bard Graduate Center

References

External links

*
Official web site
from Tara Expéditions
Planète Océan, official web site
from the

GoodPlanet Foundation The GoodPlanet Foundation is a non-governmental organization founded by Yann Arthus-Bertrand in 2005, supporting ecology and sustainable development. Activities The GoodPlanet Foundation is mainly concerned with the distribution of pedagogic ...

The New York Review of Books Sept 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitiot, Michael 1970 births Living people French male screenwriters French screenwriters French film directors