parkoursousinfluence

Algerian-born, Paris Based Director  LAZHAR GATT has developped an early passion for photography but his childhood stories,told by his grand-parents in the oral tradition his culture, has led him to filmmaking in ordr to tell important things. As one of his favorite director said once : “ if Cinema doesn't tell important things, then I don't know why I shall make films” ( Jacques Audiard )

The first works Lazhar Gatt begun at the age of 19, on Algonquin in Canada in the Lac St-Jean, in collaboration with a tourism agency.

Extensive training in photography and development opens the doors of The Studio ELLE and for its prestigious magazine.

He assists the biggest names in fashion photography industry, as Jean-Marie Perier, Friedmann Hauss or Lothar Schmidt. He's been taught to have an esthetic outlook on his environment.

After several years working with model agencies in Paris and New York (Ford Models Europe - Ford Models New York, IMG New York mainly), he begins to advertise for clients such as Electrolux Arthur Martin, Paint The Town Red,  young fashion designers and clients to Special Events such as Folies Pigalle, the Palace.

In the early 2000s, he returned to more personal work, including reports on two European capitals, Lisbon and Barcelona and two cities in North America, New York and Washington DC ... like the work of his idol in photography, Raymond Depardon.

Following this work, Lazhar Gatt decided to consider cinema as a mean of communicating its ideas.

A short film test Algiers confirms his choice, and he began to work on a major project on a difficult period for Algeria, 1991-1997 and the rise of Islamic terrorism.

With the production company, Studio EPIX, he now prepares a more intimate film about a social subject, the difficulties of the Algerian youth, including the dangers of drugs and sports as a solution against the idleness of young  people.

Meanwhile, he continues to work for clients such as Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art at the exhibition by Raymond Depardon Paul Virillo for SFR and their location in La Reunion, and for Logica and their collaboration with Microsoft...