Jean-Pierre Gorin

Who is Jean-Pierre Gorin?

Jean-Pierre Gorin is a French filmmaker and professor, best known for his work with Nouvelle Vague luminary Jean-Luc Godard, during what is often referred to as Godard's "radical" period.

Jean-Pierre Gorin was a student of Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan. He was a radical leftist well before meeting Godard in 1966. Godard relied on some of his discussions with Gorin while writing the script of 1967's La Chinoise. Gorin played a role in making Le Gai Savoir, which was released in 1969. In 1968, Gorin and Godard founded the collective Dziga Vertov Group and together produced a series of overtly political films including Vent d'est, Tout va bien, and Letter to Jane.

Gorin left France in the mid-1970s to accept a teaching position at the University of California, San Diego at the urging of the film-critic and painter Manny Farber. Gorin remained on the Visual Arts faculty thereafter, teaching film history and film criticism. He continued to make films—most notably a "Southern California trilogy" of essay films: Poto and Cabengo, Routine Pleasures, My Crasy Life, and Letter to Peter. Gorin describes his concept of Poto and Cabengo in 1988: