François Goetghebeur

Goetghebeur is a native of Lille. He finished his education in the United States, where he studied business. He left to work as commercial in Spain from 1996 to 1997. After this experience, he worked as the CCO (chief communications officer) for a Swedish group before meeting LGM Production in 1999, where he worked in production before focusing his attention on directing.

In 2002, LGM Production gave him the editorial and artistic responsibility of important protests and demonstrations, for which he directed reports and institutional movies in Europe, Africa, the United States and Asia. At the same time, he was head of directing for the ‘making of’, teasers and documentaries for EuropaCorp, working alongside Pierre-Ange Le Pogam and Luc Besson, for whom he later worked with again, in particular as a cameraman on the implementation of “Arthur's and minimoys”. His first short film was selected for the festival for the promotional film Méribel.

Starting in 2004, he introduced various series of documentaries ("musical Journeys" through all Europe for Mezzo, Tous Proprios for Discovery Channel, Guy Bedos for CALT, …); directed several promotional films (for and with Pierre Palmade, Zinedine Zidane and even Adriana Karembeu); and he wrote and directed short programs of fiction bound for the Web ("A gesture for the environment" for the federation of “Caisses d’epargne,” for example).

When LGM Production and France Télévision gave him the opportunity to film the Orchestra of Paris, managed by Christoph Eschenbach (for whom he later realized including all the Mahler symphonies), François focused his directing attention on the music, and in 2006, the concert film of Alain Chamfort "Impromptu in the Luxembourg Gardens" was nominated for Victoires de la Musique. "Carmina burana in the City" was selected by FIPA (International Festival of Audiovisual Programs), and he turned out the musical films in various forms: recordings of concerts, artist profiles, videos, and documentaries.

Going from symphonic music to rap, jazz or rock, he has collaborated with many artists as diverse as Michel Legrand, Mathieu Chedid, Julien Clerc, Booba, Orelsan, Tryo, Oldelaf, Joey Starr, Selah Sue, Charlie Winston, Barbara Bonney, Alexandre Tharaud, Nolwenn Leroy, Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine, Dianne Reeves, Vincent Segal & Ballaké Sissoko, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Yannick Noah, Anne Sofie Von Otter, and Jacques Audiard who worked with Francois as an advisor to direct the live singer Raphael.

Following the completion of the concert film "A Night in Versailles", his meeting with Vanessa Paradis influenced him to develop his work as a photographer. In addition to his personal research of photography, he quickly saw himself working on projects for various artists such as Raphael, Julien Clerc, Louis Chedid, Rohff, Nolwenn Leroy, Thomas Langman and Vanessa Paradis for whom he took photos during her 2010 tour.

Since 2010, he has returned to Morgan Production, working in different formats including “Victoires du jazz” (Victories of Jazz), “integral Chopin piano” by Pierre Arditi, and he has directed several documentaries including "Hellfest, metal told my mother," presented by Thomas VDB and "A Saint Laurent life" by Alain Chamfort. He also wrote several prime time television programs for France Television, including “Gala with the Union of Artists” in 2010, 2011 and 2012, the “Festival of Lorient Interceltique,” and special evenings for artists like Maxime Le Forestier (San Francisco, La Maison Bleue (The Blue House). With Jean-Louis Aubert, he initiated the first episode of "Un Concert Unique" with France Television by combining concert, acoustical music and presenting an intimate portrait of an artist.

In 2012, he filmed his first opera in Orange Chorégies "Turandot" and his first ballet for the Opéra de Paris. He has participated in worldwide 48 Hour Film Project competition ("to make a film in 48 hours"), co-producing with Nicolas Lebrun. The film "The last role of Jacques Serres" won the prize for best film as well as the best image among the 113 presented to the Paris edition of 2012.

In 2013, the 51st Gala with the Union of Artists was aired during prime time on France 2, with a reported 4.2 million television viewers (16.8% of viewers), making it the most watched program of the evening. In 2014, he attended the Cannes Film Festival.[1]

In 2016, he directed a music video for Johnny Hallyday's song "J'en parlerai au diable".[2][3] This became Hallyday's final video before his death in 2017.[4] The video has amassed more than 19 million views on YouTube.[5] Since then, he has been working on a feature film made up of footage of Hallyday's final road trip, to be released in 2020.[6][4]

In 2019, he directed Claudia Tagbo's one woman show for CSTAR. He continues to direct television special and concerts, as of 2019.[7]

• Official website
• François Goetghebeur at IMDb