1. Med Hondo's critically acclaimed 1970 directorial debut feature, Soleil O, received the Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno International Film Festival and was chosen in 2019 by the African Film Heritage Project for restoration.
13 Facts About Med Hondo
1. 2.
Med Hondo was born in 1935 in Ain Bni Mathar in Morocco.
3.
In 1954, Med Hondo went to Rabat, Morocco, to train to become a chef at the International Hotel School there.
4.
Med Hondo emigrated to France in 1959 and found work first in Marseille and then in Paris, variously as a cook, farm labourer, waiter, dockworker and delivery man.
5.
Med Hondo found that he and other African immigrants were unable to gain work in their chosen professions, and in the menial jobs they could find, they were paid less than the French.
6.
The difficulty of making a living during this time, as well as the racism he experienced, eventually provided inspiration for Med Hondo's films, including Soleil O and Les Bicots-negres, vos voisins.
7.
Med Hondo began to take classes in acting and directing, and studied under French actress Francoise Rosay, acting in classic plays by Shakespeare, Moliere and Racine.
8.
Med Hondo began work on his first film, Soleil O, in 1965.
9.
In 1981, Med Hondo was a member of the jury at the 12th Moscow International Film Festival.
10.
Med Hondo worked on the dubbing of many English-language films into French, voicing characters played on screen by Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and Danny Glover.
11.
Med Hondo dubbed several of Eddie Murphy's films, including The Nutty Professor and the part of Donkey in 2001's Shrek and its sequels.
12.
Med Hondo explained on his website that he met with Danny Glover in 1991 and presented his then-current project to him: a biopic of Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture.
13.
Med Hondo mentioned his meeting with Glover in an English-language interview on French international news channel France 24.