Eric Pauwels (Belgium, 1953) is a filmmaker, author, lecturer, ethnologist, and anthropologist. At INSAS in Brussels, he studied theatre and became interested in its origins, the sacred rite. Pauwels also travelled to South-East Asia to film sacred dances. This choreography of bodies in trance lead him to film also the work of dancers of the Mudra generation such as Michèle Anne De Mey and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Passionate about cinema and anthropology, he received a PhD at the Sorbonne, where Jean Rouch was one of his important influences. Author of ethnographic documentaries on possession dances and on contemporary dance, in recent years he has devoted himself to more personal documentaries. The Trilogie de la cabane (Lettre d’un cinéaste à sa fille (2000), Les films rêvés (2010), and La deuxième nuit (2016)) led him to the more intimate form of the film diary. He has also published several novels.