Jacques Krier


Jacques Krier was a French television film producer and director. A communist, he directed many mini-series of television documentaries about the living conditions of French workers, including janitors, as well as Arabs in French Algeria and immigrants from Mali. He also directed films for television and documentaries for the General Confederation of Labour, a labor union. He was the author of several novels and the winner of the 2000 Prix Roger Vailland.

Early life

Jacques Krier was born on February 6, 1926 in Nancy, France. His parents were storekeepers.
Krier co-founded the ciné-club de Nancy with Jean L'Hôte in his hometown as a teenager. He graduated from the University of Nancy with a Bachelor of Laws and the University of Paris with a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy. He subsequently attended film school at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques, later known as La Fémis. Meanwhile, he joined the French Communist Party. Moreover, with Stellio Lorenzi, he was the co-founder of the Syndicat français des réalisateurs de Télévision, a subgroup of the General Confederation of Labour, a labor union in France.

Career

Krier started his career in television because the 1946 Blum–Byrnes agreement made it difficult for communists to work in cinema. He joined the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française in 1953, where he first worked as an assistant to Maurice Failevic. He later worked on the newscast.
Krier began directing documentaries in 1957 alongside Jean-Claude Bergeret with A la découverte des Français, a television series of 14 mini-documentaries about the everyday lives of French miners, fishermen, teachers, etc. He directed Cinq colonnes à la une, another television series, from 1959 to 1968. Some of it showed scenes of Arab villages in French Algeria. With Pierre Tchernia, he directed 40 000 voisins, a 1960 documentary about the new HLMs built in Sarcelles. In 1964, he directed Ouvriers noirs de Paris, a documentary about Malian immigrants in Paris, with scenes shot in their home country. He also directed Mémoires d’un vieux quartier, a 1965 documentary about Ménilmontant with Gérard Chouchan. After a two-year hiatus, he directed Les femmes aussi for television in 1970. He subsequently directed Les Matinales – Paris de 5 à 7, a television series of mini-documentaries about the living conditions of janitors.
Krier directed television films. For example, he directed Un matin à Glisolles in 1962; it was about a young couple who run away without their parents's consent to be together. Meanwhile, he directed documentaries for the CGT.
Krier was the author of several novels and plays. His 2000 novel, L’Idéale, won the Prix Roger Vailland.

Death

Krier died on August 24, 2008 in Digne-les-Bains. On his death, journalist Marcel Trillat said he was "a pioneer of what we came to know as the social-poetical documentary". His papers and films are held at the Institut national de l'audiovisuel.

Works