Biography
Farid Dms Debah was born in 1976 in Paris, France. He's a director, screenwriter, and producer, also known as a photographer, association activist and human rights defender.
Farid Dms Debah moved at the age of 8 with his family to Oum el Bouaghi, a rural town of Aurès in Algeria. He became familiar with the musical world and joined the local conservatory with his older brother Yassine. The beginning of the dark decade and the assassination of his maternal uncle, a professional soldier, during a clash with terrorists on the outskirts of the city of Blida, will mark the final departure of the whole family from Algeria.
Back in Paris, he recorded at the age of 14, with his brother Yassine and his elder sister Hadia, a first single entitled "Mal de Vivre".
At the age of 16, he founded his first computer company. Curious and enterprising by nature, he gave up on computers and at the age of 18 became a producer and host of radio programs. In parallel with this activity, he obtained a license as a show entrepreneur and organized numerous world music concerts in Paris and its surroundings.
At the age of 20, after having made numerous amateur short films, he decided to open a film production company: Dms Productions.
He produced and directed his first real film entitled "Deadly Venom" (Venin Mortel) which will reveal the actress Élodie Navarre. This humanist film recounts the descent into hell of an addict. The film was screened in numerous European festivals, at the Vidéothèque de Paris and at the Cinémathèque d'Alger.
At 24, he opened a new film production company (Evasion Films which became Dms Debah Films in 2004) and decided to devote himself entirely to his real passion: cinema.
In 2001, he produced and directed the film "Art'n Acte Production", (awarded in many festivals) with Cristiana Réali, Rachid Arhab, Benoît Allemane, Thierry Beccaro, Henri Guybet and the singer Khaled.
Subsequently, he successively produced animated films "The Firecracker" (Grand Prix Hermès at the Fréjus Film Festival) and "Flying Baby".
Farid won the SACD Beaumarchais (Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers) for the Best Screenplay of the Year 2002 for his film entitled "The Genie of the Teapot" (Le Génie de la Théière).
In parallel, he is executive producer and director of numerous video clips (Daddy Yod, Just a Man, Takfarinas, etc.) for the major musical productions such as M6 Interactions and Sony BMG.
Farid Dms Debah directed and produced in 2004, a film on anti-personnel mines with Élodie Navarre entitled "The Executioner of the innocents" (Le Bourreau des innocents). He receives from the very hand of the filmmaker Emir Kusturica, the Palme d'Or of the Cannes Festival Off in 2007. Besides this great mark of recognition, he also received for his film the Public Prize at the Saint-Maur Film Festival in 2006 and the Youth Jury Prize at the Festival des 24 courts in 2007.
Appreciated on the screen as in his community, Farid Dms Debah received on January 8, 2005 the Medal of Honor from the city of the Kremlin-Bicêtre (France).
The same month, he produced the film "Final Sentence" (Sentence finale) the cast of which brought together talented actors such as Hans Meyer, Didier Flamand, Gabrielle Lazure, Marie Merger and Élodie Navarre.
In 2005, he produced and directed several advertisements for the Algerian market, including the national mobile telephone operator Mobilis.
His artistic expertise is very often sought by film professionals. Indeed, he was a member of the jury for many film schools (ITM Paris, etc.) and international festivals (Sarlat Film Festival, Agadir Film Festival, etc.).
He often writes articles for the specialized press (16/9éme, etc.) and reports on cinema and the media (Club Averroès annual media report).
In September 2005, he signed the preface to the biography "On the left of the screen" (À gauche de l'écran) of the actor Ilario Calvo published by "Les Points sur les i".
In 2006, he wrote and produced 2 short films in computer graphics, entitled "Namoos".
Farid, also a photographer, will present in "The Treasure of the Foggaras" (Le Trésor des Foggaras) which deals with an irrigation system which dates back several millennia and which allowed a whole people to live in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
In 2012, he produced and directed a documentary titled "Discovering Eid al-Adha" (À la découverte de l'Aïd al-Adha) in which we follow him in his initiatory journey, discovering a major and often decried religious holiday.
In January 2014, he produced 3 short films to promote the release of Kenza Braiga's book "Little Treatise on Infidelity" (Petit traité de l'infidélité) with actors such as Pierre-Alain de Garrigues and Annabelle Milot.
Between 2016 and 2017, he produced and directed a societal documentary on child abuse and pedophilia in Morocco. The documentary "Morocco, Sacrificed Innocence" (Maroc, l'innocence sacrifiée) which is the result of two years of research on the whole of the Cherifian kingdom, won the Special Prize at the Sose International Film Festival in Armenia.
In November 2017, he presented his second exhibition entitled "Face-to-face for the children in Morocco" (Face-à-face pour les enfants du Maroc), which brings together some sixty portraits of media figures who support the fight against child abuse.
In 2018, he produced and directed a television series called "I am your father" (Je suis ton père), which recounts the tribulations of a homeless man and his teddy bear. The series stars comedian Cartouche who plays the main role.
