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In 1972, after studying at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the University of North Carolina, Denis Poncet began his career in journalism at the radio station RTL.

Soon after, he joined the team of “La première chaîne,” France’s first national broadcaster, in charge of covering such events as the Vietnam War and Watergate. In 1977, he headed the Radio France outlet in Washington and collaborated with the American press. In the 1980s, as Senior Correspondent, he covered conflicts in Lebanon, Central America, and Africa. In 1987, he participated in the creation of the French channel “La Cinq” and represented the channel in Miami for both the North and South American markets. In 1990, he headed Radio France International and decided to end his journalistic career after creating the financial radio station BFM.

In 1992, he directed various documentaries such as On Death Row, New Orleans Police Blues, and «The Child and His Gun». Meeting Jean-Xavier de Lestrade led him to producing. He has worked with Jean-Pierre Ramsay, and later with renowned director Bertrand Tavernier and his company Little Bear, on films such as La vie jusqu’au bout, The Other Side of the Tracks, Une Australie blanche et pure (FIPA D’OR 99). Finally in 1999, he created MAHA Productions, with Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, for which he produces many film and television documentaries and develops future projects..

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade has directed more than 10 films and is one of France’s most recognized documentary filmmaker.

After obtaining degrees in both journalism and law, de Lestrade created a news production company and in 1992 began directing documentary films for international audiences. The next eight years saw de Lestrade win major european film award for work such as A White and Pure Australia, (Gold FIPA), and Of Justice And Men, a heart wrenching look at the trials that took place following the Rwandan genocide, which won the prestigious Prix Albert Londres.

In 1999 Jean-Xavier co-founded Maha Productions and three years later received an Academy Award for his film Murder On A Sunday Morning. Hailed as “a brilliant piece of work” and “as tense and exciting as any fictitious whodunit” Murder continues to be broadcast worldwide. His next film, the critically acclaimed eight part documentary series The Staircase, for which he received the IDA award for “Limited Series”, a Peabody and a DuPont award, has been called “one of the best TV programs I have ever seen” (Associated Press) and described by the New York Times as “.... brilliantly conceived; reported, filmed...a masterpiece.” In 2006 Jean-Xavier decided to write a fiction film, Welcome Home, inspired by true events.

In 2009, curious to confront a new form of expession, he shot a documentary fiction based on the trial of Véronique Courjault, accused of three infanticides : The murderous path of an ordinary mother, a film unanimously praised by critics, is a new insight into the heart of the unspeakable, questioning directly what it is to be human.

He is currently writing a new fiction for the cinema

After literature and cinema studies at the Université Paris III, Matthieu Belghiti started his career as Assistant Director on many short and feature length films, and as Production Manager for various production companies.

In 2000, he becomes Associate Producer in Bertrand Tavernier and Frédéric Bourboulon’s Little Bear company, in charge of shorts and documentaries. He went on to produce twenty documentaries, including Les Passeurs by Laetitia Moreau, Rwanda, a deafening silence by Anne Lainé and White Terror by Daniel Schweizer ─ films that have garnered awards in major international festivals.

In 2005, he joined Maha and his former collaborators as Associate Producer and continues to develop many documentary and feature projects.