Personnalité

Born on March 28, 2003, in Montpellier, Henri Ballester-Colonna discovered cinema in an empirical way. His passion began in middle school, where he wrote and directed his first short films with a friend. What started as a simple playground quickly became a space for commitment: preparing shoots, the excitement of the set, and collaborative work became a real driving force for him. As projects followed one another, his ambition grew. He moved beyond the circle of friends to bring together larger teams and gradually move toward a more professional approach. Early on, he understood the decisive impact actors have on the quality of a film. He therefore joined the youth program of Cours Florent in order to meet young actors and deepen his understanding of the fundamentals of directing performers. Later, he himself became a drama teacher at Cours Florent Jeunesse as well as within an association. His work constantly weaves connections between theatre and cinema, both in the themes he explores and in his creative methods, which are nourished by a particular attention to acting and performance. After completing a film and audiovisual studies degree at university, he joined the public graduate film school of Aix-Marseille Université, the SATIS (Sciences, Arts and Techniques of Image and Sound). There, he won the screenwriting competition that allows one student to direct a fiction graduation film, further affirming his commitment to a form of directing centered on actors. He now explores other kinds of films, more transgressive in tone, echoing the engaged short films he made in high school—works in which both form and content can be as provocative as they are exhilarating.

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