The Black Bear
Rule #1: never feed bears.
Rule #2: do not approach within 100 meters.
Rule #3: avoid surprising bears.
Rule #4: keep your dog on a leash.
Now that you know the rules, we wish you a pleasant stay in the natural park of the black bear.
- France, Belgium
- 2015, 16 min
- Director: Xavier Seron, Méryl Fortunat-Rossi
- Director of photography: Thierry Godefroy
- Editor: Emilie Morier
- Screenplay: Xavier Seron, Méryl Fortunat-Rossi
- Music: Erwann Chandon, Thomas Barrière
- Cast: Jean-Jacques Rausin, Jean-Benoît Ugueux, Catherine Sale, Terence Rion, François Neycken, François Ebouele, Delphine Théodore, Philippe Grand
- Contacts: oriGine films
- Art Director: Laios Hendrickx
- Coproduction: Hélicotronc
- Producer: Olivier Berlemont, Emilie Dubois
- Production: oriGine films
Xavier Seron, Méryl Fortunat-Rossi
After studying law, Xavier Seron entered the Institute of Broadcast Arts in 2001. In 2005, his graduation film "Rien d’insoluble" (Nothing Unsolvable) is rewarded several times and selected in about fifty festivals across the world (among them the Venice Film Festival). in 2007, he wrote and directed a short fiction film entitled "The Crab" with Christophe Hermans, which was selected at the Premiers Plans d’Angers Film Festival in France. In 2008, he contributed to the writing of the documentary feature "The Parents" by Christophe Hermans and co-wrote "En compagnie de la poussière" (In Company with the Dust), a short film by Jacques Molitor (selected at the Locarno Film Festival in France).
At the request of the actor and director Bouli Lanners, he directed "The Eldorado of Jean-Jacques", a making of documentary of the film "Eldorado". In 2011, he committed an ethologic and alcoholic short film entitled "Bad Moon" written and directed with Méryl Fortunat-Rossi. The film was nominated at the Magritte Awards and rewarded several times: its main actor Jean-Jacques Rausin was attributed three awards for his performance.
More recently, Xavier has completed "Dreamcatchers", a documentary feature about Belgian wrestlers directed with Cédric Bourgeois. He is currently working on the release of "Je me tue à te le dire", his first fiction feature.
Méryl Fortunat-Rossi was born in Arles, France on April 24th 1979. He studies photography in highschool before heading towards film studies. Between 1998 and 2000, he co-directed three short home movies. Then from 2001 to 2005, he studied film-making at the Institute of Broadcast Arts in Belgium. Now he lives in Belgium where he divides his time between television work for the Belgian channel RTBF and his own films. His last fiction "Bad Moon" was attributed 9 awards around the world and received a nomination for Best short movie at the 2012 Magritte Awards. He also worked on the documentary genre with "Aparicion", which was also nominated for Best short at the Magritte Awards after being selected to the Aix-en-Provence film Festival, the Split festival, Jihlava or Brussels. In 2013, Méryl created the first Belgian film festival in France.