JR

Directing

JR

Born

1983-02-22 (43)

Place of birth

Paris, France

Known for

Directing

Credits

29 titles

JR is a French photographer and artist. Describing himself as a photograffeur, he flyposts large black-and-white photographic images in public locations, in a manner similar to the appropriation of the built environment by the graffiti artist.

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 6 titles

Paper & Glue poster
7.3

A documentary following JR's artwork giving a global voice to everyday people.

Paper & Glue

2021

Madame X Presents: Madame Xtra Q&A poster
7.3

A follow-up special to Madonna's recently released concert documentary film MADAME X. This special features questions from very special guests Ariana Grande, Amy Schumer, Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Jimmy Fallon, Kim Kardashian, Snoop Dogg, and more.

Madame X Presents: Madame Xtra Q&A

2021

Dans la lumière - Au cœur de la création du spectacle signé JR, Damien Jalet et Thomas Bangalter poster
NR

The documentary reveals the unique artistic collaboration between visual artist JR, former Daft Punk member Thomas Bangalter, and choreographer Damien Jalet. By combining their respective talents, they created "Chiroptera": 154 dancers from around the world perched on the scaffolding of the Palais Garnier in Paris. Together, they offer us an extraordinary performance. In the fall of 2023, the Paris Opera asked artist JR to transform the construction site on the façade of the Palais Garnier into a creative playground. By inviting Damien Jalet and Thomas Bangalter to create a performance for 154 dancers with him, he embarks on a human and artistic adventure with complex technical challenges. This documentary takes us behind the scenes of this show. How will the challenge be met?

Dans la lumière - Au cœur de la création du spectacle signé JR, Damien Jalet et Thomas Bangalter

2024

No artwork available
NR

In The Past Goes Fast, Robert De Niro opens the doors of his father’s studio, preserved for almost thirty years, to JR. He discusses his complex relationship with his father, Robert De Niro Sr (1922-1993), an abstract expressionist painter.

The Past Goes Fast

2022

Tehachapi poster
7.6

French visual artist-director JR situates his latest social-art intervention in a Southern Californian supermax prison, where he has imagined an enormously ambitious collaboration with the facility’s inmates.

Tehachapi

2024

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

La Caverne du Pont-Neuf

2026

2010s · 4 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Faces Places poster
7.6

Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.

Faces Places

2017

Faces Places poster
7.6

Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.

Faces Places

2017

Paper & Glue poster
7.3

A documentary following JR's artwork giving a global voice to everyday people.

Paper & Glue

2021

An Urban Allegory poster
7.5

A ballet dancer is late for an audition for a show inspired by Plato's Allegory of the Cave. She arrives with her seven-year-old son, Jay, and begs the director to give her a chance.

An Urban Allegory

2024

An Urban Allegory poster
7.5

A ballet dancer is late for an audition for a show inspired by Plato's Allegory of the Cave. She arrives with her seven-year-old son, Jay, and begs the director to give her a chance.

An Urban Allegory

2024

Tehachapi poster
NR

Currently and formerly incarcerated men at California’s supermax penitentiary in Tehachapi collaborate with renowned photographer and artist JR on a project to transform the prison yard into a powerful – but temporary – work of art.

Tehachapi

2021

No artwork available
NR

In The Past Goes Fast, Robert De Niro opens the doors of his father’s studio, preserved for almost thirty years, to JR. He discusses his complex relationship with his father, Robert De Niro Sr (1922-1993), an abstract expressionist painter.

The Past Goes Fast

2022

Tehachapi poster
7.6

French visual artist-director JR situates his latest social-art intervention in a Southern Californian supermax prison, where he has imagined an enormously ambitious collaboration with the facility’s inmates.

Tehachapi

2024

Ellis poster
6.6

Ellis, a fourteen-minute film directed by JR and written by Academy Award winner Eric Roth, tells the elusive story of countless immigrants whose pursuit of a new life led them to the now-shuttered Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital. Following its opening in 1902, approximately 1.2 million people passed through the facility, where the Statue of Liberty can be seen from the windows. Languishing in a sort of purgatory awaiting their fate, many were never discharged.

Ellis

2015

The Clichy-Montfermeil Chronicles poster
NR

JR, a contemporary artist, returns to Clichy-Montfermeil in the suburbs of Paris where his artistic adventure first began 14 years ago with Ladj Ly, his strongest link to the neighborhood. Both decide to create a monumental mural portraying a singular portrait of the inhabitants of this territory, inspired by the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. "The Clichy-Montfermeil Chronicles" not only illustrates how an urban utopia of the 1960’s has transformed into a neighborhood in a state of unrest, but also sheds a light on subjects JR and Ladj Ly covered over a decade ago.

The Clichy-Montfermeil Chronicles

2017

Women Are Heroes poster
7.7

In his film "Women Are Heroes", photographer JR takes his audience into some exceptional women’s lives. Because there are, most of the time, the first victims in war-time and left to their own during peace-time, JR pays tribute to those women who, in spite of the hurdles, keep smiling, keep fighting and keep hoping a better life. From Rio’s shantytowns to Kenyan slums, passing by Indian and Cambodian streets, he offers a fresh look at their struggles and expectations. Displaying their portraits via huge montages on their neighborhood’s walls, JR sublimates those extraordinary destinies and sheds the lights on those strong and moving personalities, too rarely recognized enough.

Women Are Heroes

2011

Women Are Heroes poster
7.7

In his film "Women Are Heroes", photographer JR takes his audience into some exceptional women’s lives. Because there are, most of the time, the first victims in war-time and left to their own during peace-time, JR pays tribute to those women who, in spite of the hurdles, keep smiling, keep fighting and keep hoping a better life. From Rio’s shantytowns to Kenyan slums, passing by Indian and Cambodian streets, he offers a fresh look at their struggles and expectations. Displaying their portraits via huge montages on their neighborhood’s walls, JR sublimates those extraordinary destinies and sheds the lights on those strong and moving personalities, too rarely recognized enough.

Women Are Heroes

2011

Les Bosquets poster
8.0

Art and social uproar interweave in this film based on the ballet Les Bosquets of New York City Ballet, inspired by the 2005 French suburb riots. A continuation of JR's Portrait of a Generation, it recalls his experience in the ghetto of Montfermeil using various means of expression and narration: video archives, choreography, and testimony.

Les Bosquets

2015

Les Bosquets poster
8.0

Art and social uproar interweave in this film based on the ballet Les Bosquets of New York City Ballet, inspired by the 2005 French suburb riots. A continuation of JR's Portrait of a Generation, it recalls his experience in the ghetto of Montfermeil using various means of expression and narration: video archives, choreography, and testimony.

Les Bosquets

2015

Les Bosquets poster
8.0

Art and social uproar interweave in this film based on the ballet Les Bosquets of New York City Ballet, inspired by the 2005 French suburb riots. A continuation of JR's Portrait of a Generation, it recalls his experience in the ghetto of Montfermeil using various means of expression and narration: video archives, choreography, and testimony.

Les Bosquets

2015

Omelia Contadina poster
6.6

A farming community gathers on a plateau on the border of three regions for the funeral of traditional agriculture. It’s a film to ward off the disappearance of a millenary culture.

Omelia Contadina

2020