Michel Pascal


Photo: Eva Hernandez


Michel PASCAL is an artistic chameleon with an eclectic career. Aged 9, he became a circus performer. He went on to write short stories, essays and novels before composing music and directing plays and films.

Michel began singing in churches and has for many years sung with renowned jazz performers such as Mark Ledford, David Blamires, Danny Gottlied, Jim Beard (Pat Metheny Group), Bojan Z, and Laurent Robin (an award winning French drummer)

In 1996 he wrote and directed his first play "Une saison au Moyen Age" (A Season in The Middle Ages). It was produced by Peter Brook and Micheline Rozan at the Bouffes du Nord Theatre in Paris and performed by Jean-François Balmer.

He wrote "Titanic, Beyond the Curse” in 2004, which was made into a TV documentary, produced by TF1, the leading TV channel in France.

Michel is also a talented photographer. He took the photographs illustrating the Dalai Llama's book “Instants Sacrés” (Sacred Moments) published in 2008. Since 2009 he has compiled seven other photographic books inspired by the spirituality of the East. His photographs have been exhibited in Paris and Los Angeles.

Michel has written two essays on Native American philosophy. “Notre vie est un tipi”, Our Life is a Tipi, published in 2007.

In 2009 Michel went to live in the largest Buddhist monastery in The Himalayas at Kopan in Nepal . He directed “Lhamo, the Little Himalayan Girl”, a documentary released in 2010, about a Tibetan child refugee who becomes a Buddhist nun. It was the first time that the monastery had permitted filming of their way of life.

During the summer of 2010 Michel devised and directed PURE, an experimental film devised around meditation for stressed and sick people. It was shown for a month in a Hollywood cinema. The film helps the viewer to find inner peace.

His latest essay “Notre crise est une chance” (Our Crisis is an Opportunity Chance) was published in 2011, exploring how our society could find true happiness if it rethinks its relationship with money by reinforcing its spiritual values in the face of economic difficulties. Matthieu Ricard, the official spokesman of the Dalaï-Lama wrote the Foreword.

His play “Story of a Soul”, with Eva Hernandez, has been successfully performed around the world with 450 performances seen by more than 80 000 people. Michel also directed a filmed version of “Story of a Soul”, shot in the Carmel of Lisieux, and released on DVD. An English version will be made shortly.

His latest venture is “AGAPE”, a medley of songs and meditations from the works of celebrated Catholic writers and saints. It includes Therese of Lisieux's beautiful poetry, which she described as “her jets of joy”; writings from St Paul, St Augustine, St Francis of Assisi, Hildegard von Bingen, St Teresa of Avila, Blessed Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI . Composed, sung and read by Eva Hernandez and himself, it is currently being alternated with performances of Story of a Soul during the Summer 2012 Tour. It has been selected to mark the Year of Faith by a prominent parish in central Paris where it will be performed for several weeks in December 2012. It will then tour the Holy Land.

In 2013 Michel will direct a major film set in the Himalayas.

No comments:

Post a Comment