Bassem Christo

Bassem Christo (born 9 January 1968, Beirut), is a Lebanese director.

Christo is the son of Joseph Christo and the poet Bassima Batouli. After high school, Christo enrolled in law school but soon discovered that the court wasn't the place he dreamt to spend his life in. Having worked as a DJ in a Lebanese radio station, music and sound design became one of his passions, thus, he decided to turn this passion into a lifetime career.

Career

Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC)

During the Lebanese Civil War, Christo had to leave his native town of Ashrafieh and head towards Ghazir-Kesrouan. It's there where he started to develop his passion through training at the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC). During his time at LBC, he explored the whole world of television, including the ins and outs of studios, control rooms, and editing suites, and his passion found the perfect land to grow.

"Camera wein" was the first program Christo directed at LBC, and "Toute la ville chante et danse" was his first at C33, the French alternative of LBC's main channel at the time. For the many years following, he directed some of the most famous programs at LBC, including "Btekhsar iza ma btelaab" and "Iftah albak." And these renowned entertainment shows were not the limit of Christo's achievements with LBC, as he also famously directed a large number of MusicAL concerts including the "Beat Machine" series, Scorpions, Julio Iglesias, and Raúl di Blasio.

Outside of TV work, Christo began to direct music videos. In 1997, he received the "best music clip director" at the Beirut International Film Festival for the first "one shot" clip in the Middle East for Marie Sleiman's song "fi aynek badawwar".

Mr Christo's journey with LBC lasted many years, during which his talent and passion combined grew very rapidly. He was the first to cover Cannes Film Festival for many consecutive years, where he spent many long nights in the editing room where he chose to fore go sleep and meticulously observe the finishing of his work.

Not only did he discover his career passion at LBC, but he also found Rita, the love of his life, now his wife, inseparable "scripte" and mother of their daughter Mia-Maria.

Post-LBC

Christo's journey with LBC eventually came to an end, and the unstoppably creative director had to start his own career. Thus, in 2000, he began freelancing as a director of TV programs, music videos, festivals and events.

In 2004, the talk show "Maestro", presented by the famous Neshan Der Haroutiounian, began to rise in success in the Middle East and eventually aired live every night during the month of Ramadan. This fortune erupted soon after Christo joined the project, where he brought a whole new artistic concept to the show which caused it to attract huge audiences.

Since then, the visionary director has signed more than 40 TV shows, 50 music videos and 300 concerts.

In 2006, Christo went into TV production and co-founded a production house called "PERIBA" (PERI-BAssem) with the renowned French Lebanese TV producer Péri Cochin. He is currently the managing partner and Periba has since produced many of the most famous TV programs in the Arab world, such as "Chako Mako", "Taratata", "Sawalefna Helwa", "Number One Fan" known as "Moojab Ajib", "Zahrat Al Khalij", "Najm Al Khalij 4 & 5” and "Hadith AL Balad."

Since 2008, Christo became a partner of Bright I, a specialized media training center that provides professional high quality workshops and castings for "anchors-to be.” Since 2009, he has taken on the roles of treasurer and board member at the Screen Institute Beirut (SIB), which supports and promotes film in all its forms as an important means of expression of cultural, artistic and social values. During that same period, Christo was a Jury member for "Murex D’Or Beirut."

Television Programs (Director)

Concerts and Festivals

Music Videos

Movies

Awards