doctor, co-founder of Handicap International

A doctor by training, Jean-Baptiste Richardier is the founder of Handicap International, an NGO he co-founded in 1982 with his friend and colleague Dr. Claude Simonnot. Outraged by the fate of thousands of Cambodian refugees amputated by landmines, the two French doctors decided to mobilize by manufacturing prostheses for the victims.

For more than thirty years, Jean-Baptiste Richardier has developed Handicap International's international actions. In particular, he has made a significant contribution to the association's commitment to the fight against anti-personnel mines, a fight for which the NGO was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. He successively held the positions of Director of Communication and Development, Head of the Mines Department, before becoming Handicap International's Director General in 2003. He retired in 2016, retaining a role as a director on the Board of Directors. Jean-Baptiste Richardier is also behind two new initiatives established in Lyon, the magazine Alternatives Humanitaires and the international movement United Against Inhumanity.

writer, poetess

Édith Azam was born in 1973 in Alès. She is an author who seeks to unmask language. She explores it in all its forms. From hallucinated narratives (On sait l'autre, ed. P.O.L., Caméra, ed. P.O.L.), to sensitive storytelling (Décembre m'a cigüe, ed. P.O.L., Animal crépuscule, ed. Propos2), poetry (Oiseau-moi, ed. Lanskine, Haïkus de lueurs et de doutes, ed. L'atelier des noyers, Mon corps est un texte impossible, éd. L'Atelier de l'Agneau) to the theater (Karpiano directed by Christian Schiaretti, a monologue she performs on scene), Édith Azam seeks what language says to us or what language says about us. On this day, she is immensely proud and honored to be a jury member for the International Film Festival on Disability.

founder and director of Handirect magazine

Originally from Haute-Savoie, Jean-Marc Maillet-Contoz became paraplegic at the age of 8 after an accident. He spent twelve years in various rehabilitation institutions, while at the same time attending ordinary school. In these institutions, he had the opportunity to do a lot of sports, in particular athletics, basketball, weight training... After his studies, he started working in different companies without finding his place. It was a time when disability was still not very present in companies and was generally badly perceived. Very independent, entrepreneurship imposed itself on him.

In September 1997, he founded the magazine Handirect to inform and inspire disabled people. Today, it is a disability expert media present in the form of a paper magazine, a website and social networks. Whether in its paper or digital form, Handirect promotes, among other things, initiatives by people living with a disability, actions by associations too small or misunderstood to be relayed in the regular media, deals with the fundamentals of citizenship and equal opportunities. But it is employment and training that crystallize in large part the columns of this media.

Since the creation of the magazine, he has been writing and acting as a conference organizer, co-organizer of trade shows, and partner of the biggest events related to disability. He is also an administrator of LADAPT, the South-East Social Health School and the CRIAS CREAI of the Rhône. A maxim from Handirect to remember: “Difference is one of the best levers for gaining an advantage”.

actress, screenwriter, director

After having been a journalist and host, Stéphanie Pillonca devoted herself to writing and directing, notably creative documentaries related to disability and difference for Arte, Je marcherai jusqu'à la mer or Laissez-moi aimer... She also directed Fleur de tonnerre with Déborah François and Benjamin Biolay. C'est toi que j'attendais is her second film for the cinema which will be released on December 22, 2021. She also directs unitary films related to difference and disability for television such as Apprendre à t'aimer or Handigang.

comedian

At 52, Luc Rodriguez is a recognized comedian and a happy clown! From his handicap, he has drawn a life force and a capacity for self-mockery, which allows him to make the public laugh and to speak about handicap with lightness. Thanks to some wonderful encounters with the ZimZam circus company, he discovered the stage. A clowning course, circus shows, then an important role in the television series Vestiaires on France 2 where he plays the role of an intractable and often incomprehensible unionist, make Luc Rodriguez a unifier, in joy and good humor. He meets students and adults during various workshops, in particular with the Décalèou company, which creates social links through clowning, body percussion and voice. For Luc Rodriguez, sharing is important: he gives a part of himself in his shows, and also receives a lot!

journalist, art critic, writer

Natacha Wolinski is an art critic for Art Newspaper, Good Life Magazine, Marie-Claire Magazine. A photography enthusiast, she was producer for five years of Mat ou brillant, a program on France Culture. She also directed the book pages of Beaux-Arts magazine and reviewed photography for this monthly magazine from 1998 to 2014.

From 2011 to 2020, she led conversation cycles for the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation and the Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles. She has published numerous books on photography with Editions Filigranes: Mister G. (2011), Notices de la Corse (2013), Echelle 1 (2014), Walking (2015), Days in Vichy (2016), Entrevues (2018). In addition to her career as a journalist, she is also a writer. In 2011, she published a first novel, En ton absence, ed. Grasset. In 2017, with her sister Elsa, she dedicated a book to Demoiselles de Rochefort (ed. De La Martinière). In 2020, she published her second novel, Son éclat seul me reste, (éd. Arléa).