BIOGRAPHY
SIMON PANAY
Son of winegrowers, I first learned to make films with my brothers and a small mini-dv camera. At 18, I start filming independant shorts and earn the distinction of Young Talent of the Year by the french organisation ARP (The Author-Directors-Producers association), with the mentorship of Gérard Krawczyk.
It is in West Africa that I experiment through documentaries, gradually finding my cinematographic language through the films and creating a deep anchoring with Burkina.
Since 2015, I dive into the world of artisanal gold mining, starting with Nobody Dies Here, that has been screened in 71 countries, selected in 397 international festivals and won 134 Awards.
Laureate from the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation Documentary Grant, I devote five years to the making of my first documentary feature If You are a Man, filmed in a gold mine in Burkina-Faso. The documentary, released in french theaters in 2023, has been warmly welcomed by the press.
After receiving the Author's Career Grant from the CNC (French Film Institute), I now develop several live action projects in West Africa, pursuing my dive in the artisanal gold mines world, that fascinates me.
Crédit Sylvain in situ
DIRECTOR
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IF YOU ARE A MAN
2023 - 74 min
Foundation documentary grant Jean-Luc Lagardère 2019
CNC Development fund
Canal+ International
Cercamon World Sales
JHR Distribution
Thirteen-year-old Opio works at the Perkoa gold mine in Burkina Faso. To pay his tuition, he will have to go down to work in the underworld, risking his life.
NOBODY DIES HERE
2016 - 23 min
Perma gold mine, Benin. There are those who dream of finding and those who have realized that there is nothing to find. There are those who dig hoping to get rich and those who have died thinking they are getting rich. And then there are the others who say that nobody dies here.
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WAITING FOR THE (T)RAIN
2015 - 25 mn
A small village lost in a desert of dust, in the bush of Burkina. The oldest have known slavery in the service of France, the youngest dream of distant horizons.
DRÔLE DE GUERRE
2013 - 13 min
Matis, a young child, is dropped off with his grandfather for a few days, so that he does not see his mother sink into illness. To kill time, he is going to play with his grandfather's things, an old pistol and a resistance medal.
TONTINES,
UNE AFFAIRE DE FEMMES
2014 - 52 mn
Every Wednesday, twenty women gather in the courtyard of Fatoumata to hold the Tontine meeting, a cooperative banking system, but it is also the only time of the week when they can meet with women ...
SCRIPTWRITER
ALBI
In development
Feature film - France - Burkina Faso
Produced by Xavier Castano
Loull Production
Written with the collaboration of Eve Deboise and Souleymane Drabo
With the support of the CNC
With the support of Bourgogne Franche-Comté
In a Burkina Faso that sees the specter of war, a street vendor and an albino child will be friends.
UNTIL THEY FALL
Writing in progress
Feature film - France - India
Produced by Samuel François-Steininger - Composite Films
NOUS SOMMES TOUS
DES PANDAS
Writing in progress
Dramatic comedy feature film
Directed by Gérard Krawczyk
Produced by Oz Production
JESSE OWENS ET LUZ LONG,
LE TEMPS D’UNE ÉTREINTE
2016
CO-WRITING - DOCUMENTARY 52 '
Directed by Véronique Lhorme
Produced by La cuisine aux Images
Diffusion: Planet +
During the 1936 Olympic Games, Hitler's favorite sportsman and black-American sportsman Jesse Owens will compete under the eyes of the Führer in the long jump. Against all expectations, a long friendship will be born between the two men, which will unleash the anger of the Third Reich as well as of American authorities.
THE BOY WITH WHITE SKIN
Postproduction
Live-action short
Produced by Bandini Films
With the support of the Region Grand-Est and France Televisions.
Sold by his father to a group of gold miners working hundred meters underground, Issa get employed by force and crystallise all hopes.