Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2025

[Chris Knipp]

THIBAUD DE LONGEVILE: DJ MEHDI, MADE IN FRANCE (mini-series)

TRAILER

Carrière ouverte aux talents (career open to talents)

In the late nineties the Parisian "banlieure," the suburban ghettos, begah to produce prodigies, very young men of color inspired by the new genre of rap to become artists at the ages of twelve or thirteen, an energy that was to change the face of music nationwide. Foremost among them was the boy of North African Arab parents, Mehdi Faveris-Essadi, who was to become known as DJ Mehdi. Self-taught composer, turntable prodigy, and visionary producer, he began producing fully formed raps at home using the records they had, including disco and Umm Kulsoum, improvising a mixer by bricolage, and was to grow into a mult-talented maker and producer of virtual Quincy Jones proportions, though he was to die in 2011 at only thirty-four when the skylight (or mezzanine) of his Paris home collapsed.

There is a new documentary about his complex life in six episodes as "DJ Mehdi: Made in France," which is now availabler for streamng in certain countries via the Arte label. It has been generously included in the Lincoln Center 2025 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. The miniseries provides an insight into a multicultural - and totally French - outgoowth of rap, which at its outset French white media pundits declared destined to fade quickly. They were very mistaken.

Popular music such as hip-hop and techno came in to fill a need that they in turn created. This passionate documentary begins with astonishing talent that seems to bloom in unfertile soil. His family came from Tunis in the sixties. They all changed from their Muslim names to French ones. Those who describe their encounterr with DJ Mahdi wonder what could have happened from age eight to age twelve to develop him into a hip hop composer for rappers. How did he encounter rappers and go on to make things that were to become legendary ("culte")? A mystery that is the heart of this series' first episode.

All along the way, and what may give the series its wider interest, we keep hearing about how the mainstream producders and media people rejected the young prodigies, told them they didn't matter, that their genre would not last. We see from much arthival footage that Mehdi glowed with an upbeat spirit and a warmth and beauty that made him appealing. He was also, with that, a visionary. This first episode I saw is just a teaser, but it has heart and excitement and promise of mysteries to unravel. The series tells a larger story about how rap broke out of the banlieue to reshape the national cultural landscape, which spread to the UK, as is shown by the Guardian obiuary.

DJ Mehdi: Made in France, six-part mini-series from Arte directed by Thibaud de Longueville, released Sept 12, 2024 in France on the internet. Screened for this review as part of the 2025 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, where the four-hour series will be shown. Showing:

Sunday, March 9
6:00 PM Q&A with Thibaut de Longeville on March 9

The runtime includes a 15 minute intermission.


DJ MEHDI