Gaston Roberge was born in Montreal, Canada in 1935. He obtained a BA degree (classics) from the University of Montreal in 1956. He then joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and at his request, was sent to India in 1961. He has been living in West Bengal ever since. In 1970 he received an MA degree in Theater Arts (Film) from the University of California in Los Angeles. During his stay in Los Angeles he directed a 26 minutes documentary film on primary education, and prepared radio programmes for Radio Pacifica. He was awarded a research grant by the Canada Council for a study of Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible and went to Moscow in that connection in 1973. Knowing Bengali, Gaston Roberge is in a unique position to discuss the films made in that language, like those of Mrinal Sen and Satyajit Ray. Roberge conducted a course on Satyajit Ray's cinema at Loyola College (now Concordia University), Montreal, in 1973. He translated into French an anthology of Hindu texts published as 'Prions avec nos frres hindous' (Deesclee, 1971). In 1970 he started a social communication centre in Calcutta, called Chitrabani, and is its director. In 1986 he started the Educational Media Research Centre of St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, and is its director. From 1996 April, he is appointed Executive Secretary of Jescom International in Rome.

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