Éric Valli
Éric Valli ( born 1952 in Dijon ) is a French photographer and film director.
After he had served an apprenticeship as a carpenter, he decided at age 18 to devote himself instead of photography. He traveled to Afghanistan, the Middle East and India. The mid-1970s, he settled in Kathmandu. From then on he worked mainly in the Himalayan mountains and created photographs for illustrated books and magazines such as National Geographic and Geo. In addition, he produced documentaries about 1988 Chasseurs de miel and 1990 Chasseurs de ténèbres. The latter was nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Short Documentary ".
By Himalaya - The Childhood of a caravan leader, he turned a film about a people in the Himalayas, the lives of the yak breeding. The 1999 film should also be a documentary, the producer suggested before but to put the material in the form of a feature film. This was eventually won multiple awards and was nominated for the Academy Awards in 2000 as Nepal's contribution as " Best Foreign Language Film ".
Another feature film followed in 2006 with The Trail of a fourteen- year-old European who goes to her father to Africa after the death of her mother, who works there as a geologist. This film was far less successful than the Himalayas - The Childhood of a caravan leader.