Jean-Francois Charles

An Alphabet for Grant Wood is the film version of a song originally featured in my opera Grant Wood in Paris . This film will be screened at three festivals in Iowa in October. I hope to see you there! Sioux City Film Festival I'll be in Sioux City on Saturday, October 3 for the Iowa premiere of the film. An Alphabet for Grant Wood will be shown at 10 am, as part of the MidWest category of the Sioux City International Film Festival . Refocus Film Festival The film is part of the Short Film selection of Refocus , a film festival dedicated to adaptations. Screenings: Friday, October 23, Teen Screen special event, 1 pm Friday, October 23, 4 pm Saturday, October 24, 12 pm Sunday, October 25, 3:10 pm More information: Monograph Shorts 2026 @ Refocus Film Festival Cedar River Film Festival At the Cedar River Film Festival in Cedar Falls, the film will be shown late on October 31, in the Unexpected Terror program!

On April 16, 2026, we performed with Ramin Roshandel (the Jamshid Jam duet) new music to an excerpt from Lotte Reiniger 's film The Adventures of Prince Achmed . Here is the live recording: This performance was a first step towards the creation of a complete soundtrack for the 65-minute movie as a trio (Ramin Roshandel, Nicolas Sidoroff, and myself). One of the next steps consisted in the creation of a kind of storyboard for the movie: To be continued...

Tonight at 5:30pm, Ramin Roshandel and I, i.e. the Jamshid Jam duet, are playing new music to an excerpt of Lotte Reiniger 's wonderful movie The Adventures of Prince Achmed , at the invitation of film and media historian Michael Cowan and the organisers. Come if you are available! If not, stay tuned: we are working on more music for this film! To be continued...

After a sold-out premiere at FilmScene , we are performing our new soundtrack to the 1923 Hunchback of Notre Dame , starring Lon Chaney in Ainsworth, Iowa! Here is some press coverage of this unique performance: Washington Live hosted by Diana Rich with guests Jean-Francois Charles, Nicolas Sidoroff, Mike Zahs, November 1, 2023 on KCTC : Article in the Southeast Iowa Union - a.k.a. the Washington paper !, by Kalen McCain, November 2, 2023: Hunchback of Notre Dame, screening to feature live soundtrack . Interview on KCII radio hosted by Jennifer Wilkerson, with Michael Zahs, Jean-Francois Charles, and Nicolas Sidoroff, November 3, 2023: Halcyon House Washington Page on KCII radio, Nov 3, 2023 . Article in The Kalona News, by Cheryl Allen, October 25, 2023: Live music to accompany ‘Hunchback’ at Ainworth Opera House . The show is organized by Michael Zahs at the Ainsworth Opera House. Dinner is included - we hope to see you there! Tuesday, Nov 14, starting at 6 p.m. Review...

Kino-Pravda is a series of newsreels directed by Dziga Vertov between 1922 and 1925. This summer, during a residency at the Logelloù with Nicolas Sidoroff and Krystian Sarrau , we created a new soundtrack to Vertov's Kino-Pravda No. 5 and No. 6 : We recorded the soundtrack live on July 30, 2021. The Council of Three Dziga Vertov worked very closely with Mikhail Kaufman and Elizaveta Svilova . They constituted a Council of Three and published about Kino-Eye and their vision of film making. In these excerpts from a 1923 resolution, the Council of Three describe how the camera enables to see the world in new ways: I am kino-eye, I am a mechanical eye. I, a machine, show you the world as only I can see it. Now and forever, I free myself from humanity immobility, I am in constant motion, I draw near, then away from objects, I crawl under, I climb onto them. I move apace with the muzzler of a galloping horse, I plunge full speed into a crowd, I outstrip running soldiers, I...

The Eleventh Year evening initially programmed on March 20, 2020 , was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemy. We had the great pleasure to transform the initially planned 3-day event into a week-long residency at the Logelloù Artistic Center. With Nicolas Sidoroff (trumpet, objects) and Krystian Sarrau (tenor sax, modular synthesizer), we worked and composed together a new soundtrack to two newsreels by Dziga Vertov : Kino-Pravda No 5 and No 6. Krystian Sarrau, with Vertov's Kino-Pravda No 19 on the screen, picture by Philippe Ollivier The Kino-Pravda series consists in a set of 23 newsreels authored by Dziga Vertov between 1922 and 1925. Jean-François Charles on basset-horn & live electronics during the same rehearsal, picture by Philippe Ollivier The week ended with a full evening of music dedicated to supporting Dziga Vertov's pictures: Dziga Vertov: Concert & Cinema . Program: Prelude (live music) Kino-Pravda No 5 & No 6 (movie with new soundtrac...

Situated in Brittany, France, the Logelloù is much more than a place: it is a unique artistic project combining creation, residencies, recording studio, and more. I was thrilled to be invited with Nicolas Sidoroff & Krystian Sarrau for a concert and projection of Dziga Vertov 's 1928 movie The Eleventh Year . We produced a collaborative soundtrack with Clélia Bobichon, Guillaume Hamet, and Sébastien Sauvage. Unfortunately, the concert & projection has been cancelled due to the spread of coronavirus. Along with the Logelloù staff, we hope to make this event possible again at some point in the future. In the meantime, don't hesitate to watch The Eleventh Year online.

This Friday,January 27th, I'll be presenting the movie at the invitation of the University of Iowa's Department of Cinematic Arts and Film Studies Colloquium. After a short introduction (including words from other members of the team), we will screen the film, and have time for Questions & Answers. I hope to see you there: it's at 3:30 p.m. in E105, Adler Journalism and Mass Communication Building. More information: Eleventh Year's movie trailer

You liked the trailer ? Enjoy now Dziga Vertov 's 1928 movie with its brand new soundtrack! Dziga Vertov's The Eleventh Year on youtube . (youtube movie updated January 29th, 2017) Close-up of faces in The Eleventh Year , from Lev Manovich's Vizualizing Vertov article.

Coming soon! A new soundtrack to Dziga Vertov 's movie The Eleventh Year . A collective project with musicians Nicolas Sidoroff, Clélia Bobichon, Guillaume Hamet, Krystian Sarrau, and Sébastien Sauvage. Here is a picture of our creation studio during the summer of 2015:

On May 12th, 2008, I played clarinet in a student orchestra, in Harvard Pforzheimer House. I was thrilled to take part in a recording session for a new movie project - more than a movie: a musical! - by a team of Harvard undergraduates. Writer & director Damien Chazelle '08 and composer Justin Hurwitz '07 were leading what was surely one of their first recording session with an orchestra. Since then, the project went a long way, and the feature musical Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench was just released in New York this week-end: get your tickets now on Cinema Village . Make sure you watch it when it comes close to your place! Damien Chazelle was a Harvard Artist Development Fellow .

Last Sunday, April 27th, the Dudley House Big Band performed a brand new score to The Man With The Movie Camera . The first short feature was The Great Train Robbery , with a new score performed by the Dudley House Improvisation Workshop. The concert took place in Paine Hall, Harvard Music Department . Nicolas Sidoroff - trumpeter, composer, and educator, was invited by Dudley House for this exciting project. Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery (1903) In 1993, I played clarinet in Nicolas's first version of this score (for 5 horns.) Last Sunday, we played a great updated version, with: Clarinet: Jean-François Charles Trumpet: Nicolas Sidoroff Tenor Sax: Michael Heller Baritone Sax: Alan Lenarcic Piano: Nathan Fosse Upright Bass: Nathan Haselby Drums: Ben Stanton It was a real treat to play with such awesome musicians! Dziga Vertov's The Man With The Movie Camera (1929) Dziga Vertov's 1929 masterpiece pulses with a boundless energy, and the virt...

At this time a week ago, I was playing contrabass clarinet at the Berklee College of Music . I was taking part in the recording session for this soundtrack, composed by David Gonzalez : Contrabass clarinet The music is very different than Carlina acaulis for contrabass clarinet and string quartet , or than Magma for contrabass clarinet, stones, and live electronics . Yes, the contrabass clarinet is a versatile instrument! Professionalism I appreciated Dave's professionalism . And I speak not only musical composition to fit the image, but also communication with the performers and the sound engineer, layout of the parts, schedule, preparation of the session in Digital Performer . He handled these tasks smoothly, and all the musicians enjoyed the session. " Aptitude versus Attitude " says Robert Kraft . I was also glad to play in Berklee's Film Scoring studio. The school has wonderful facilities. There are great studios, and I like how they are designed for both ...

Plane Mix is the 9th minute of the 60/60 interactive composition project . Many thanks to Cécile Pécheux for her participation and her present: a great DVD set dedicated to Lon Chaney , The Man of a Thousand Faces . Both Cécile and I have been struck by Tod Browing 's The Unknown with an original soundtrack performed live by ARFI's Marmite Infernale . I discovered this ARFI show (called Tragédie au Cirque ) during the festival Un Doua de Jazz 1994. That was an extraordinary experience, as well as my first contact with Maurice Merle . I strongly recommend to watch this movie, even if it will lack ARFI's powerful soundtrack! My first video remix I first remixed a public domain video: Spot News 1937 (using Apple Final Cut Express ). Then, I composed the soundtrack. Enjoy!     9/60 - Plane Mix on youtube

Listen while reading! This fall, I have been proposed to produce the music for a very special movie: a commercial to be played in the waiting room of a pharmacy. I thought "Why not?" I would surely learn new things and improve my Logic Studio skills. Coincidence, on October 26th, when I was drafting the music, Robert Kraft was invited at Harvard. Robert Kraft is the President of Fox Music Inc. He gave me interesting comments on Dérives . But he was even more helpful on my pharmaceutical work in progress: Be more repetitive . The audience likes repetition. Don't waste all your ideas in a short amount of time. And the audience expects the theme to come back. Indeed, my first version was an accumulation of musical loops, very varied, because I was afraid of being too repetitive! It's good to use a clear structure . For instance, a 4 or 8-bar looping structure. As you can hear, the new version is very much 4-bar oriented. I synchronized the music with the picture throu...

During my studies at Strasbourg Conservatory , there was an important interaction between the Conservatory and Festival Musica (and I am sure it is still the case.) I performed in the festival in 2000, 2001 and 2002, to play the music of Pascal Dusapin, Thierry De Mey (a Maximalist! program,) and Javier Torres Maldonado . In Fall 2003, Ivan Fedele proposed me to take part to an exciting project: a collaboration with film makers around the topic "the building of the new Conservatory." The Cité de la Musique was in construction, and Marie-Claude Ségard, director of the Conservatory, had the idea of this collaborative art work. The result has been " En Chantier ", a collection of 16 short films produced by the Festival Musica, the Conservatoire National de Région de Strasbourg, and the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg . Production I worked on the short film Dérives , directed and realized by Sophie de Quatrebarbes , Élise Launay and Adeline Meilli...