MONSIEUR KUHN
A FRENCH FILMMAKER IN NEW JERSEY
Executive director, producer, cinematographer, educator: To turn his love of film into a career that works for him and his family, Wilhelm Kuhn wears many hats. None of them are a beret.
Written by Elizabeth Moglia Jackson
A FRENCH FILMMAKER IN NEW JERSEY
Executive director, producer, cinematographer, educator: To turn his love of film into a career that works for him and his family, Wilhelm Kuhn wears many hats. None of them are a beret.
Written by Elizabeth Moglia Jackson
Wilhelm Kuhn, the Montclair-based filmmaker, producer, cinematographer, film educator, and executive director of the Lighthouse International Film Festival, is often teased as being “a Frenchman in New Jersey” by his American friends, as if the native Parisian had left something better behind. But Kuhn, who trained at the London Film School and moved to the States in 2018 after falling in love with his American wife, doesn’t see it that way. “I had never been to New Jersey, except for the airport, until we started looking for houses,” he explains. Unaware of any Jersey stereotypes, he “started noticing the state was the subject of many jokes. But to me it had an exotic aspect. In Paris I had always lived in apartments with no backyard or front yard.” He realized that New Jersey is “way more beautiful than what people say about it in New York.”
On that front, Kuhn notes that filmmakers can tap into the Garden State’s many landscapes: “You have the coast, hills, cliffs, mountains, Newark [for city scenes]. It’s a compact version of the rest of the country. Everything except the desert.” Although, he adds, “historically they made Westerns in New Jersey too.” Kuhn himself, in fact, put the state’s scenic versatility to work in his short film Julius (2020), a period drama set at the end of the Civil War and shot entirely in the Garden State.
Given all of Jersey’s assets, Kuhn is still somewhat surprised by how the state has become the epicenter for his flourishing career. “When people graduate film school, there is this pressure to relocate to a ‘hub’ city for jobs—L.A., Manhattan, Atlanta,” he says, and they think of moving to the suburbs mostly in terms of the required commute. He shares that for him, moving to New Jersey meant that “I discovered places like Montclair Film, the Maplewood Film Society, and a robust community of filmmakers and creatives—and I think others are unaware of these networks.”
After moving to Montclair, Kuhn became an educator at Montclair Film, where he teaches such workshops as High School Cinematography and Narrative Filmmaking for Adults. Kuhn says Montclair Film has also been “a great partner” in hosting his “Ten Films” traveling lecture series, centered around such topics as “Ten Films That Changed America” and “Ten Films That Scared America,” a concept born out of the “post-pandemic era,” adding: “It’s a show that’s educational and fun [and designed] to make people go back to the in-person experience.”
Kuhn now refers to himself as “an adopted New Jerseyan,” though he misses his French family. Thankfully, his French-incorporated company, Sunhour Films, makes trips to his native country easier. “As a French company, we have access to public funding for movies, which is huge compared to the U.S.,” he says. In fact, Sunhour Films’ latest production, Her Song (for which Kuhn served as co-cinematographer), was filmed in the French Pyrenees and recently had the honor of opening the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose (executive produced by Howards End director James Ivory and Eric Gruendemann).
Back on this side of the Atlantic, Kuhn’s role as executive director of the Lighthouse International Film Festival brings him to another coveted location—New Jersey’s Long Beach Island. He beams when asked about MovieMaker Magazine naming the festival one of the coolest in the world. “Not one—we are the coolest,” he says. “We have the best parties in the business, and we have a mainstream audience that truly engages with the filmmakers.” For Kuhn, the festival is yet more proof that “New Jersey combines a great quality of life with a creative community.”
Learn how to attend the Lighthouse International Film Festival.
On that front, Kuhn notes that filmmakers can tap into the Garden State’s many landscapes: “You have the coast, hills, cliffs, mountains, Newark [for city scenes]. It’s a compact version of the rest of the country. Everything except the desert.” Although, he adds, “historically they made Westerns in New Jersey too.” Kuhn himself, in fact, put the state’s scenic versatility to work in his short film Julius (2020), a period drama set at the end of the Civil War and shot entirely in the Garden State.
Given all of Jersey’s assets, Kuhn is still somewhat surprised by how the state has become the epicenter for his flourishing career. “When people graduate film school, there is this pressure to relocate to a ‘hub’ city for jobs—L.A., Manhattan, Atlanta,” he says, and they think of moving to the suburbs mostly in terms of the required commute. He shares that for him, moving to New Jersey meant that “I discovered places like Montclair Film, the Maplewood Film Society, and a robust community of filmmakers and creatives—and I think others are unaware of these networks.”
After moving to Montclair, Kuhn became an educator at Montclair Film, where he teaches such workshops as High School Cinematography and Narrative Filmmaking for Adults. Kuhn says Montclair Film has also been “a great partner” in hosting his “Ten Films” traveling lecture series, centered around such topics as “Ten Films That Changed America” and “Ten Films That Scared America,” a concept born out of the “post-pandemic era,” adding: “It’s a show that’s educational and fun [and designed] to make people go back to the in-person experience.”
Kuhn now refers to himself as “an adopted New Jerseyan,” though he misses his French family. Thankfully, his French-incorporated company, Sunhour Films, makes trips to his native country easier. “As a French company, we have access to public funding for movies, which is huge compared to the U.S.,” he says. In fact, Sunhour Films’ latest production, Her Song (for which Kuhn served as co-cinematographer), was filmed in the French Pyrenees and recently had the honor of opening the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose (executive produced by Howards End director James Ivory and Eric Gruendemann).
Back on this side of the Atlantic, Kuhn’s role as executive director of the Lighthouse International Film Festival brings him to another coveted location—New Jersey’s Long Beach Island. He beams when asked about MovieMaker Magazine naming the festival one of the coolest in the world. “Not one—we are the coolest,” he says. “We have the best parties in the business, and we have a mainstream audience that truly engages with the filmmakers.” For Kuhn, the festival is yet more proof that “New Jersey combines a great quality of life with a creative community.”
Learn how to attend the Lighthouse International Film Festival.
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This story appeared in the inaugural issue of Socko! Magazine [May, 2026]. Click here to subscribe
