I often wondered what my last day working for 24Heures and Tribune de Genève would look like. I know now. The streets of New York City are hot and humid today. Outside my office, construction workers are working on yet another apartment building in downtown Brooklyn, a place that has undergone an tremendous transformation in the 19 years I have lived here.
When I first moved to the City in 2002, the original plan was to stay for 5 years and then head back to Switzerland. But New York adopted me, transformed me, gave me a family and a new career in documentary filmmaking.
This day marks the end of a 22-year career at 24 Heures and La Tribune de Genève, two daily newspapers with which I have never stopped identifying myself since they hired me on August 1, 1999. I still remember the feeling of pride I felt that day when I joined the World News section fresh out of college. Not to mention the happiness I felt when I was named U.S. Correspondent for the two newspapers in 2002.
For the past 19 years, I have been lucky to be able to feel the pulse of America’s “brutal and blind heart” described by Jean-Paul Dubois, the journalist and author whom I have never stopped emulating. When I first arrived in New York in 2002, I was actually carrying in my luggage "Until then, everything was fine in America", a collection of essays that Jean-Paul Dubois had written during his time as a U.S. Correspondent for the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur. I loved this book and read it so much that it ended up falling apart. And when I took it out this morning to take its picture and write this message, I realized that it had been signed by Dubois with this message for me: “Dear Jean-Cosme, I wish you luck, courage and a beautiful life in New York”.
I needed courage to make it in the City, but I can says that my life in New York is great because I am lucky to have a job I am passionate about. After 22 years at 24 Heures and at the Tribune de Genève, I concluded that it was time for me to turn the page and embark on another path which led me to the Tribeca Film Festival in June for the world premier of my latest film HARLEY.
I am fortunate not to leave alone. The thousands of people I met around the world and interviewed during my career, are leading me onto this new path. In the last story I wrote for 24 Heures and the Tribune de Genève, I was able to track down the bravest journalist I had ever met in Havana. After several stays in Cuban prisons, Roberto Guerra Perez had to flee to the United States, where he unfortunately could not keep working as a journalist. So he reinvented himself as a gardener.
Roberto and so many others like him made me grow both as a journalist and as a person. It is also thanks to them that I had the courage to make this move to keep creating. So to all of you who are interested in working with me, I am constantly looking for new challenges and new collaborations besides my films. So please do not hesitate to reach out.
