Patric Jean, born in 1968, grew up in the coal-mining area of Mons in Belgium between his working-class grandparents and his singer-at-the-opera mother. After ten- year courses in dramatic art, he entered the Royal Academy of Brussels where he won First Prize. He also studied at the UniversiteÌ Libre in Brussels. He became a teacher of French and he enrolled in a film direction class. During his four-year studies he created and designed "Nemo", a magazine sold in the streets by homeless people. He directed several documentaries: Intra-Muros (1995), La conqueÌ‚te du Pole (1997), Les enfants du Borinage, Lettre a Henri Stork (1999), Traces (2000), La bonheur economique (2001).
