Madeleine Gobeil

Madeleine Gobeil has been a journalist, a former professor of French literature at Carleton University in Ottawa (1964-1971), and the Director of Arts for UNESCO (1975-1997). She first met Simone de Beauvoir in 1958, after having at the age of fifteen begun a correspondence with the celebrated writer. In 1967 she initiated this documentary on Sartre and Beauvoir for Radio-Canada, with Michel Brault as cameraman and Claude Lanzmann—an Editor at Les Temps Modernes and a close friend of the couple -- as co-interviewer.

Claude Lanzmann

Claude Lanzmann is a Paris-based filmmaker, best known for his 9½-hour "cinematic history of the Holocaust," Shoah (1985), and the editorial director of the prestigious journal, Les Temps Modernes, founded by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. He has lectured on French literature and philosophy at the Free University of Berlin and is a Professor of Documentary Film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Among his other documentaries are Why Israel (1974), A Visitor from the Living (1997), and Sobibor, Oct. 14, 1943, 4 p.m. (2001).

Max Cacopardo

Max Cacopardo worked as a screenwriter, producer and director of public affairs programs at Radio-Canada from 1957 to 1996, winning numerous awards for his work. In addition to JEAN-PAUL SARTRE AND SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR, his most notable films include De Gaulle au Québec (1967), L'Éducation sexuelle (1969), the series Le Prix du spectacle (1985), and L'Ère du cerveau (1994). In 1996 he became the President and Director of Créatel Télévision.

Michel Brault

Born in 1928, Michel Brault is known as the father of Quebecois cinema and one of the creators of cinéma-vérite, working with Jean Rouch, among others. In addition to photographing dozens of documentary and fiction films -- including such classics as Chronicle of a Summer (1961), À tout prendre (1964), Les enfants du néant (1968) and Mon oncle Antoine (1971) -- Brault has also worked as a producer, director, writer and editor over a long, distinguished career.