ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 3.11 - February 1999

A Tribute to Jean-Luc Xiberras

compiled by Annick Teninge and Georges Lacroix

The architect of the highly regarded Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Jean-Luc Xiberras passed away on December 26, 1998. We wanted to pay tribute to him for his immense contribution to animation. Here an international selection of friends, colleagues and animators give their final thoughts on a man whose presence in animation will long linger.

Respectfully,
Annick Teninge, Ron Diamond, Dan Sarto and Heather Kenyon.
Animation World Network

 

 

Jean-Luc Xiberras and Saeid Bidokhi at Saba Co. Courtesy of Saeid Bidokhi.

Mr. Xiberras was a kind and dedicated man. I met him for the first time in 1995 in the city of Isfahan, Iran. During 1997 and 1998 I held meetings with him in Annecy. At our last meeting, which took place on May 31, 1998 in the festival's office, I offered him a complete profile of our new company and explained to him that in just three years we had started production on 35 different animation projects. He was surprised and told me that he would help us in any way he could. His enthusiasm encouraged me and my colleagues. We invited him to visit our company and sent him a fax officially inviting him to visit our country in February, when we celebrate the anniversary of our revolution, but unfortunately...

Saeid Bidokhti
Production Manager, Saba Company

A poem excerpt sent by Jean-Pierre Quenet.

For Jean-Luc,

The Wolf's Death
"Alas I thought, in spite of the great name of Man
How shameful am I of what we are.
How to leave Life and all its wrongs,
Only you, sublime animals, know it .
Seeing what we were on Earth and what we leave,
Only silence is great,
Everything else is weakness.

Go, I understand you well wild wonderer
As your ultimate stare pierced straight through my heart,
It said ; go, ensure that your soul reaches,
By remaining studious and thoughtful,
This high level of stoic pride,
Where, born in the woods, I initially grew up.

Moaning, crying, praying is also cowardly.
Energetically do your long and heavy labor,
On the path fate calls you upon,
Then, afterward, as I do, suffer and die without a word."

- Alfred de Vigny

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