Biography
Jacky Raynal is a French director, actress, and film editor, born in 1940 near Montpellier. She holds a diploma in Linguistics. In the early 1960s, already working as a photographer, Raynal began her career in cinema. She served as assistant film editor on documentaries by G. Patriss and F. Vienne, then edited the first films of E. Rohmer. In 1965, she earned the senior film editor license for feature films from the CNC (National Cinema Center). She collaborated with New Wave directors, editing all segments of Six in Paris, directed by Jean Douchet, Jean Rouch, Jean-Daniel Pollet, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, and Claude Chabrol. Raynal continued editing through the late 1970s.
In 1968, alongside S. Boissonas and O. Mosset, she co-founded the Zanzibar group, working with Philippe Garrel, Serge Bard, Daniel Pommereulle, Alain Jouffroy, and Patrick Deval. Raynal directed her first feature film, Two Times in Barcelona, which won the Grand Prix at the Hyères/Toulon Festival in 1972. By then, she was living in New York, where from 1975 to 1992 she curated programs at Carnegie Hall Cinema and Bleecker Street Cinema, showcasing numerous independent international films. Her work in New York was praised by F. Truffaut, who likened it to the French Cinematheque, and she received awards from the Village Voice in 1981 and 1991.
Raynal directed New York Story (which won the Grand Prix in Melbourne) and Hotel New York. Simultaneously, she acted in several films and organized various international film festivals, including the Colombian Film Festival, Israel Film Festival, and Avignon Film Festival. From 1973 to 1986, she co-published the independent international cinema review 1000 Eyes Magazine with Sid Geffen.
Since 2000, Jacky Raynal has directed several documentaries, such as Notes on Jonas Mekas (2000) and Eric Rohmer, the Film Maker (2010).
In 2010, she was honored with the Légion d'Honneur as a Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to the arts.
