Saudade, perhaps...

About Director

⁣José-Manuel Xavier was born in Lisbon, where he graduated in visual arts and music.

Between 1962 and 1964, he directed advertising animation films for the agency Êxito.
In 1965, he moves to Paris and animates short-films of directors such as Manuel Otero, Michel Boschet, Peter Foldès, René Laloux and many others.
In parallel to his animator activities, he draws and illustrates to the editorial world and to the press, paints and exhibits at the Biennale of Paris and at the Museum of Modern Art of the same city.

In 1973, he is invited to teach the art of movement at the School Duperré Paris, where he creates the atelier “Animation-Film”, within which he holds the position of professor for twelve years. This atelier, which as every other atelier of “Métiers d’Art” degrees is not subject to any professional boundaries or constraints, will offer José-Manuel Xavier the opportunity to develop an educational method in the domain of the moving image, based on experimentation and discovery.
In that same year, he becomes the only disciple of the great master of etching, i.e. “aquatina”, Alexandre Alexeïeff, the famous author of animated films directed with his renowed “pinscreen”.

Between 1973 and the beginning of the 1980’s, José-Manuel Xavier is awarded the Prize Emile Reynaud for the opening of “Cinémalices”, which he directs for the Gaumont society.
He also directs many other works of visual special effects for the Eurocitel society, as well as the animation film “Désert”, an experimental piece produced by Georges Pansu, with the support of the CNC. That film, released around the world under the exhibition “30 years of experimental cinema in France 1950-1980”, is awarded, in 1981, the Golden Plaque for Best Animated Film at the Chicago International Film Festival, as well as the Prize for First Film at the Annecy Festival of the same year.
In 1979, José-Manuel Xavier becomes associate director of the Cartoon Farm society, in which he directs a good number of advertising films, some of which won awards at, for example, the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Between 1980 and 1986, by request of René Laloux, he directs, in collaboration with a team composed of former School of Duperré Paris students, several short-films: “Ernest le Vampire”, “Pierre et son Oie” from the tale of Alexandre Dumas, and “Coup de Théâtre” for “De l’autre côté”, produced by REVCOM and broadcasted on the FR3 and WDR channels.

In 1988, José-Manuel Xavier is asked by the society EX MAQUINA to write and direct the film “Paris 1789”, for the Celebrations of the Bicentenary of the French Revolution, which blends, for the first time, 3D images with 2D animated images. That film is awarded the First Prize Pixel INA 1990, in the category of simulation/visualization at the Monte-Carlo Imagina Festival.

Between 1990 and 1992, after having directed 52 episodes of the tv series “Ernest le Vampire”, produced by the society Quartier Latin for channel FR3 and the German channel WDR, José-Manuel Xavier resumes his educational activities and teaches in multiple societies and institutions: Thomson Digital Image, Les Gobelins – Escola de Imagem, the ENSAD, University of Paris I – Sorbonne, and the Praxinos Multimedia Training Center in Montpellier.

Between 1992 and 1996, José-Manuel Xavier directs a 26-minute long Christmas tale for the Praxinos society, entitled “Avril et le Marchand de Sable”. By request of Pierre Ayma, he animates, for the Cartoon-Media plan, a professional training in Lisbon, within the Tobistoon society. In the Portuguese capital, for a while, he exercises the role of coordinator of the animation course of the Technical School of Cinema and Image (ETIC).

In 1996, José-Manuel Xavier returns to Paris and collaborates for a year in the creation of the characters and story-boards of the 3D tv series “Insektors” for the Fantôme society.
In 1997, the CNBDI de Angoulême trusts him with the educational coordination of the European Media Master of Art du LIN (Laboratoire d’Imagerie Numérique), a position he holds for 8 years. During that time, he writes, by request of André-Marc Delocque-Forcaud, “La Poétique du Movement – suivi du Carnet de l’animateur” (Editions CNBDI), a book about the pedagogy of the moving image in light of the new technologies and multimedia, that also comprises two essays on the movement in the work of Fernando Pessoa and a series of aphorisms entitled “Caderno do animador”.
During that time, he directs and animates equally diverse research films, such as a film about the poet Fernando Pessoa, entitled “28”.
On the other hand, through the years spent at LIN, José-Manuel Xavier actively collaborates, as a specialist, in the european research project CUSTODIEV with the University of Limbourg (LUC) and the University of Glasgow about the creation of new simulation tools for digital watercolor.

Since 2002, José-Manuel Xavier dedicates himself to the artistic direction of the Master in Games and Digital Media of ENJMIN (École Nationale du Jeu et des Médias Interactifs Numériques) where, as the responsible for the specialization “Visual Conception”, he teaches the conception and creation of images. In parallel, he continues his research on movement and writes texts and articles available in https://lemouvementdeschoses.com/
In 2007, Fernando Galrito, director of the MONSTRA Lisbon Film Festival, invites him to write a new “Poetic of Movement”, edited by MONSTRA, and to exhibit his “Six exercises on movement”, conceptualized for six vertical screens at the School of Arts and Design in Caldas da Rainha.
Then, José-Manuel Xavier successively directs the animated poem “Várzea”, from the music of Armando Servais-Tiago, the film “Pessoas”, an animated film from the manuscripts of Fernando Pessoa, as well as a series of “Carnets” (notebooks) and animated books that, in 2015, were presented as an exhibition at the Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores.
Those notebooks and books, as well as other films, can be watched on Youtube, at the channel: José-Manuel Barata Xavier. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3L6gsVy-i9Bx2nhLyoMWuA
Recently, José-Manuel Xavier published, in Brazil, an essay about the “Poetic of the illusion of movement”, edited by the “Núcleo de cinema” of the Univeristy of Campinas, and, in Lisbon, Portugal, a work entitled “O movimento das coisas, talvez…” (“The movement of things, maybe…”, translated by Regina Guimarães with a preface by José Pedro Cavalheiro. He also premiered the films “Angels and Archangels – Prelude to The Creation” (2022) and “The Creation” (2021) – Honourable Mention from the Jury at Monstra 2022 and Grand Prize from SeeMôr Films Festival 2022.