In 1981, Jean-Loïc Portron participated in the creation of the Ateliers Varan, originated by Jean Rouch, one of the founders of "Direct Cinema" in France.

In 1985, during Apartheid, at the request of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Portron helped set up a workshop in Johannesburg (South Africa). For three years, he has trained young filmmakers from different communities. As part of the training, they made a collective film, South African Chronicles, co produced by European public televisions (Arte, ZDF, Channel Four). The film was broadcast and won awards all over the world.

From 1991, Portron has directed documentary series for Arte, a French-German public television.

In 2011, he directed a feature length film, L’Energumène (The Energumen). The film examines a state affair that shook the end of the sixteenth century. It shows how the devilries of Marthe Brossier, who claimed to be possessed, led her contemporaries to clarify their thinking on the relationship between religion and science, between God and state. In 2013, he directed a second feature length film, Braddock America. A steel town in Pennsylvania, Braddock tells in its own way a story of America; a rebellious, combatant America, inhabited by men and women who refuse to accept the violence inflicted upon them. The film has been selected in Cannes Festival and various international festivals.