Jean Christophe was born in France to a French father and an American mother of Lithuanian origin. In 1998, he completed an MFA from Filmová a Televizní Fakulta Akademie Múzických Umění v Praze, (Famu). After directing short films to support social campaigns for Fabrica , Benetton’s communications research center, he worked with Colors Magazine creating photographic essays and written articles on social themes—first in Eastern Europe, then in New York City.
Whilst in New York, Jean Christophe joined Journeyman Pictures in 2001 to work on the film Maria Full of Grace. Shortly after the success of that film he continued on with Journeyman Pictures and joined forces with Plantain Films to work on the feature documentaryYou See Me Laughin' as an associate editor. Film projects continued with Maida Vale films where Jean Christophe worked on two shorts including Superpowers as an associate producer.
In 2007 Jean Christophe turned his attention back to art documentary photography and began a long-term project about transitional states in the Eastern Bloc. His work in Kosovo in 2007 and Abkhazia in 2008 was supported by UNICEF. The latter project was the winner of the Nikon award awarded by Kadir Van Lohuizen,and John Novi. After being a recipient at The Museum of Transitory Art in Ljubljana, Slovenia where Jean Christophe produced a feature documentary on suicide in Slovenia, Kodansha publishing in Tokyo invited him to be a participant for the book project This Day of Change in 2009.
After receiving a fellowship at Le Fresnoy , the national studio of contemporary art in France, Jean Christophe continued with his photographic and film work in the separatist zone of Transnistria.Les Déplacements Internes, the animated short based on images from this series, was made with artist Hans Op de Beeck, who wrote an original score for it. After taking 2nd prize at an Air France competition at Le Grand Palais in Paris, the film was added to all of Air France’s long-haul flights for the month of August, 2010. An abridged version of the film won the 2010 Fotopub Prize, a documentary photography festival juried by members of Panos Pictures. Generaţia de Sacrificiu, Jean Christophe’s latest film directed in 2011, is based on the secret police and film archives of the 1980s in Bucharest where he reinstates a past that never passed. The film was awarded the Prix Pro at the film festival Art Court Vidéo in Arles and the Prix StudioCollector initiated by Isabelle et Jean-Conrad Lemaître and awarded by Marc and Josée Gensollen. It was screened twice at La Maison européenne de la photographie in Paris as well as at Le MAC - Musée d Art Contemporain - Marseille. It showcased at the FIPA Festival in Biarritz. In November 2012 it was presented at BIEFF 2012 - in the Special Program Fresnoy and Les Deplacements Internes in the international competition with Peter Greenaway hosting in parternership with la quinzaines des realisateurs in Cannes.