Production, directing, distribution
GALLIX Ltd was founded in 1986 by Bertrand Renaudineau. A graduate of both the Institut de Formation Cinématographique and the Japanese department of the Sorbonne's School of Oriental languages, Renaudineau also holds a diploma from Waseda University in Tokyo. The orientation of the company derives from this varied background. After completing his studies, Renaudineau founded Les Films de l'Effraie, a company for which he produced and directed fictional, ethnographic and arts-oriented short films. This helped him evolve as a producer and director. Meanwhile he was gaining experience as a distributor of Japanese films in France, including Classic Toei productions such as Fukasaku Kinji's "Graveyard of Honour" and Yamashita Kosaku's "Red Peony Gambler"; or Yanagimachi Mitsuo's "Farewell to the Land," produced Gunro Production Atelier Dunkan.
Coordination for Japanese television programes
After having produced the Franco-Japanese short comedy-drama "Merci" by Michio Tsuda (selected at the Clermont-Ferrand festival and aired on FR3 TV channel), Gallix went on to specialise in the overseas coordination of cultural and artistic programes produced by various Japanese TV companies, notably NHK. These productions focused not only on Europe, but also Africa (Algeria, Benin, Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Mauritania, Libya, Niger Senegal, Tunisia, etc). The company also produced over a hundred documentaries about painting in the Louvre, the Orsay Museum and many other museums both in Paris and elsewhere in France. Among many other productions, there is a film about the painter Balthus at La Rossinière in Switzerland, the Dogon people in Mali, the search for Phoenician remains in Lebanon and rock paintings in the Saharan caves of Tassili n'ajjer, as well as films about Carthage and the Bororo people's festival in Niger.
Documenting art and engraving
Alongside its ongoing activities with Japan, GALLIX has recently produced and directed documentaries about contemporary artists such as the painter Gilles Sacksick and the engraver Erik Desmazières. At this juncture, a meeting with Maxime Préaud, chief curator of the print department at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (French National Library), gave rise to "Impressions Fortes" -- a project for a series of documentaries devoted to the world's greatest print artists from the 15th to the 21st centuries. Seven of these have already been released: The Temptation of St.Anthony by Jacques Callot, The Knight, Death and the Devil by Albrecht Dürer, The Paris of Erik, The Holy Face by Claude Mellan, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters by Francisco Goya, The Three Crosses by Rembrandt van Rijn, and Imaginary Prisons by Piranesi.
Bertrand Renaudineau
Graduate of both the Institut de Formation Cinematographique and the Japanese department of the Sorbonne's School of Oriental Languages (INALCO). Producer and director of theatrical shorts as well as ethnographic and artistic films in his production company, les Films de l'Effraie. In 1986 he launched GALLIX Ltd in order to foster his activities with Japan, contributing towards the production of arts-oriented programes for Japanese TV channels.