Frédéric Dieudonné
Websitehttp://www.julesverne.org

Introduction

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Frédéric Dieudonné is a writer, filmmaker and producer, born in Chantilly, France, 21 September 1969. He is a member of the French Explorers Club.

Career

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After earning a master's degree in literature from the Sorbonne of Paris, Frédéric Dieudonné co-founded the nonprofit Jules Verne Adventures with Jean-Christophe Jeauffre in 1991. Dedicated to exploration, filmmaking and education, the organization is now based both in Paris and in Los Angeles.

In 1992, Jeauffre and Dieudonné launched the annual Jules Verne Festival, inaugurated by Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Then they developed a production unit to create new adventure & exploration programs for television.

The Jules Verne Festival is held each year in April at the Grand Rex, Europe's largest movie theatre, where it attracts up to 35,000 visitors and guests.

Dieudonné became feature editor at Science & Nature magazine. Dieudonné has traveled to Brazil, Africa, Malta, and Scotland as an environment and ethnology reporter-photographer. In 1998, he launched a new magazine as editor-in-chief, L’Autre Voyage, which presents new concepts in environmentally-friendly travel around the world.

From 1999 to 2008, Dieudonné co-produced several films for TV which included Devil’s Islands - Journey into Jungle Alcatraz, Red and White: Gone with the West. A five-month expedition on the Atlantic aboard the tall ship Belem led to his production of the highly acclaimed documentaries: 100 Years Under the Seas: Shipwrecks of the Caribbean, Amazon Trek: In Search of Vanishing Secrets, Whales of Atlantis: In Search of Moby Dick, Five Months On The Sea - the Jules Verne Expedition. Two fully illustrated books were also published after the expedition.

In 2006 he wrote and directed the TV documentary Explorers: From the Titanic to the Moon, starring producer/director James Cameron and veteran Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

All of the aforementioned films are now being distributed in the US on DVD with narrations Christopher Lee and Ernest Borgnine.

As a writer, Dieudonné has been collaborating with French publisher Le Cherche Midi (from Editis Group) since 2004. Among his many responsibilities, he is developing biographies from the memoirs of accomplished artists and actors as the subjects' personal literary advisor.

In 2005 Dieudonné co-founded the American version of the French non-profit Jules Verne Adventures. It is based in Los Angeles and maintains an IRS 501(c)(3) status. The inaugural American launch of the Los Angeles Jules Verne Festival (October 2006 at the Shrine Auditorium) has celebrated the work of George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Dr. Jane Goodall and James Cameron before 6,300 attendees. Since then, the Jules Verne Festival has welcomed more than 10,000 visitors each year in Los Angeles.