Born in Paris in 1952, Jean Perret attended schools and universities in Zurich and Geneva, Switzerland. His Masters in contemporary history was dedicated to Swiss documentaries of the 1930s. Since then, he has written many articles for newspapers, magazines, and books. He has taught semiotics and cinema, worked for public radio, and produced television broadcasts for independent documentaries. Responsible for the Critics Week dedicated to documentaries at the Festival of Locarno, in 1995 he also became the Director of Visions du Réel – International Film Festival of Nyon in Switzerland. From 2010 to 2018 he was director and HES professor at the Geneva University of Art and Design in the Film Department. He is an independent lecturer in film schools, essay writer, responsible for pedagogical projects, for example at the EITCV – International School of Film and TV in Cuba, and he develops projects with the GoldenEgg Production Company in Geneva.