A Prodigious Career Cut Short

Thirteen years after his sudden death, this gripping six-part documentary series, directed by his childhood friend Thibaut de Longeville, highlights the role of this free spirit in the emergence of these two music scenes in France in the 1990s and 2000s and delves into the remarkable rise and tragic death of French music sensation DJ Mehdi.

The film captures the extraordinary life and career of DJ Mehdi, whose sudden death shocked the global music community. Directed by Thibaut de Longeville, the series offers a poignant reflection on Mehdi’s legacy, with the director admitting that the memory of the tragedy still haunts him.

DJ Mehdi, born Mehdi Faveris-Essadi, enjoyed a meteoric career that spanned nearly two decades. As a music producer and composer, he became a bridge between different musical worlds, forging collaborations between artists from the French rap scene and the burgeoning electronic music movement.

The documentary features unpublished archives and exclusive testimonies including iconic figures from the French Touch era, such as Daft Punk, Justice, and Cassius who tell the story of this extraordinary epic, from Paris to New York, and offer a glimpse into the private life of an artist who is little known to the general public and who helped forge the careers of great talents.

“Normally, when you have a nightmare, you wake up. For me, I woke up, and the nightmare began.” These are the words of Pedro Winter, founder of the Ed Banger label and former manager of Daft Punk, as he recalls the tragic morning of September 13, 2011. On that day, DJ Mehdi died in a freak accident, falling through a glass roof during a gathering at his home. This is the heartbreaking climax of DJ Mehdi : Made in France, a documentary series now available HERE and on streaming for free on arte.tv.