Patrick Bensard

Patrick Bensard has been the director of La Cinémathèque de la Danse (Paris) since its founding in 1982 by the French Ministry of Culture. La Cinémathèque de la Danse was established as a branch of the Cinémathèque Française to conserve, promote, and produce film documents relating to choreographic expression in its broadest sense. It exhibits and screens films from its collection and organizes screenings from the world of dance and jazz, both in France and abroad.

After studying philosophy and publishing articles in the Cahiers du Cinéma in the late 1960s, Patrick Bensard worked as an assistant at the Magnum agency for several photographers, including Marc Riboud and Leonard Freed, before specialising in writing about film directors. For four years, Patrick was a photographer in a Paris-based press agency. From 1979 to 1987 he was first Artistic Adviser, then Artistic Director for the Festival de Châteauvallon. In 1982 he took up the challenge of setting up La Cinémathèque de la Danse at the invitation of Igor Eisner, Dance Inspector for the Ministry of Culture, and Constantin Costa-Gavras, Chairman of the Cinémathèque Française. He has produced a number of dance-related films, including Le Mystère Babilée (1999) and a portrait of the American choreographer, Lucinda Childs (2006).