Dominique Othenin-Girard — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Dominique Othenin-Girard (born 13 February 1958) is a Swiss-French film director, producer and screenwriter. He is known for directing such films as After Darkness (1985), which was nominated for a Golden Bear Award, and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), as well as for directing the television miniseries The Crusaders (2001). Othenin-Girard is also active in promoting awareness for Down syndrome.

Dominique Othenin-Girard was born in 1958 in Le Locle, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, to French painter Ivan Othenin-Girard and Sonia Calame. His early years were spent traveling to lands that were in culturally different from his native Switzerland; first for an extended stay in Greece and then to live in Iran where his father established the Fine Arts Program in Tehran. At 7 years old he returned to Switzerland with his mother, brother and sister, where he remained until going to the United States as an exchange student when he was 16 years old. He began studying photography and was accepted at the London Film School.

Othenin-Girard graduated from the London Film School with a Masters of Arts in directing and editing. In 1982 he founded his own production company, Dog Productions, to produce, write and direct his first feature film, the psychosocial thriller After Darkness (1984), starring John Hurt with Julian Sands which was nominated for a Golden Bear at the 35th Berlin International Film Festival. He continued to direct film for the TSR and British HTV until 1987 when he moved to Los Angeles. Othenin-Girard directed the 1990 horror film Night Angel, and went on to direct and co-write the 1989 slasher film Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.

In 1990, Othenin-Girard's sister-in-law, who has Down syndrome, moved in with his family. This inspired him to tell the story of a family with a child with Down's syndrome. To accomplish this he founded the production company Alhena Films SA in Los Angeles to co-write and direct the family drama Sandra: c’est la vie (1992). He took this theme up again by co-writing and directing the German television film Florian: Love with All His Heart, which was RTL's highest rated film[citation needed] and received praise from Down syndrome advocate groups.

In the 1990s and 2000s Othenin-Girard worked in Germany, the US, and Italy, directing films on topics as diverse as organ transplant and action thrillers. During this period one of his major works was The Crusaders, an epic romantic miniseries about the Christian crusaders in the 11th century. He continued producing film for television, for RTS.

After 35 years mostly outside his native land he returned to Switzerland in 2010 to direct, co-create and co-write a 4-hour historical docudrama, Les Suisses, chronicling the history of the Swiss Federation from the 14th to the 19th century. The epic story would take three years to complete and was shot French, German, and Italian; it would represent Othenin-Girard's tribute to his homeland. ...

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