Jean-Claude Barny is a French director from Guadeloupe and Trinidad & Tobago, blending the European auteur style with American entertainment industry. A self-taught filmmaker, he began at 16 by analyzing art-house, action, and fiction films. In 1994, he directed “Putain de Porte” featuring actors like Vincent Cassel and Mathieu Kassovitz, and later contributed to the casting of “La Haine”. He furthered his skills under Jacques Audiard and directed music videos for the French urban scene and Caribbean artists.
In 2003, Barny moved to Guadeloupe to create “Nèg Maron” (2005), addressing the challenges faced by the uninformed youth of the Caribbean about their history, which garnered 250,000 admissions. Noted by Elizabeth Arnac, he directed “Tropiques amers”, a series about slavery shot in Cuba. In 2014, he made “Rose et le Soldat”, depicting Martinique during World War II.
His second feature film, “Le Gang des Antillais” (2016), is based on the autobiography of Loïc Lery, a Martinican armed robber from the 1970s. With his producer Sébastien Onomo, they are working on “Fanon” (2024), about the writer and psychiatrist advocating for Algerian independence, and “La Légende de Battling Siki” (in development), the story of the Franco-Senegalese boxer who became world champion in the 1920s.