Jean Benoît-Lévy

Biography

Jean-Benoît Lévy was not just another film director. He directed a series of good quality feature films, whether silent or talking ("Ames d'enfant" [1927], "La maternelle" [1934], "La mort du cygne" [1937] ...), and he was also passionate about pedagogy, making over 300 highly interesting educational shorts dealing mainly with social, public health subjects, dance and art. A film theoretician, he wrote books ("Le cinéma d'enseignement et d'éducation" [1929], "L'instruction visuelle aux Etats-Unis" [1936], "Les grandes missions du cinéma" [1945]) and taught cinema, particularly at New York's Ecole Libre at the New School from 1941 to 1946. After being the honorary Director of Filmaking at the UNESCO (1946-1949), he resumed his career, making a series of new shorts. His final move was to found the International Film Televisual and Audiovisual Council. When he died at seventy, the indefatigable Benoît-Lévy remained relatively unknown, and is practically forgotten today.