Documentary Educational Resources - Geography / Europe / West / France / All Films

Life Is a Very Strange Thing

Tue, 2 Jul 2019 09:22:22 GMT

Life Is a Very Strange Thing
Buy Now: $320.00

Life Is A Very Strange Thing is an intriguing mosaic of post-colonial France revealed through four generations of a remarkable French family.

Australian filmmakers Les McLaren and Annie Stiven last saw Frédéric Duvelle in the 1970s when he was a rebellious teenager recording traditional music in remote villages of Papua New Guinea. Forty years later, a chance reunion became an opportunity to fill in missing decades and to discover his remarkable family history, from his Governor grandfather in colonial Indochina to the populist politics and terror attacks of contemporary France.

We meet Frédéric's parents: mother Elisabeth, a politically engaged textile artist who raised Fred and his two sisters in a working-class suburb of Paris; and composer father Charles who grew up in Laos and Cambodia, and became celebrated for his pioneering recordings of traditional music in Africa.

Frédéric's recounts his own unlikely journey from school dropout, to ethnomusicologist then executive of a multinational garbage enterprise. He is a wily raconteur and avid collector of brocante. Shadowed by his endearing ancient dog Punch, encounters with friends in Paris and Bordeaux unfold rich layers of French culture and identity: an enigmatic African artist discusses Cubism; a cameo family lunch with a menu of oysters, history and politics; a 93-year-old WW2 Resistance veteran who forgives; and an irascible brocanteur who can't forget.

The youngest generation confront issues at the heart of cosmopolitan France: Frédéric's niece is an activist with FEMEN who protest against conservative values as the populist right-wing National Front is on the rise, and his daughter has a near encounter on the night of the Bataclan terror attack.

Life Is A Very Strange Thing is part road movie, part meditation. Its unique mix – of observation, archive footage from PNGand Indochina, indigenous music and rich sound design – evokes a lyrical and compelling portrait of family, place, politics, and memory.

“The film crackles with energy, fueled by Duvelle’s irresistible charm and intelligence; as a character, he’s every director’s dream: irascible and an oddball; cuddly, endearing and benevolent. A complex man encapsulated in a film that’s impressive in scope yet full of heart as an intimate study of a storied, colourful individual.” – John Catania, Metro Magazine

“An unusually nuanced, subtle, and insightful foray into the culturalpolitics of contemporary France.” – Steven Feld, School for AdvancedResearch, Santa Fe

“I haven't seen such a brilliantly crafted film for a long time. The film shows us that the story of France is not only local but includes the stories of travellers throughout the colonial and post-colonial world. Yet at the same time it carries us into the life of metropolitan France today with an intimacy that is thoroughly enjoyable.” – David MacDougall, Filmmaker & Film Scholar, Austrailian National University

SELECTED SCREENINGS

Cinematographiques de Cannes, France, 2018

Rencontres - cinema des Antipodes, St Tropez, 2018
Brisbane International Film Festival, Australia, 2017
Antenna Documentary Festival, Sydney, Australia, 2017

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Return to the Brouck

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 13:44:00 GMT

Return to the Brouck
Buy Now: $320.00

Forty years after the production of The Fenland (Le Brouck) comes a follow up about the Audomarois Fenland.

Return to the Brouck (Retour au Brouck) (55 min, 2011)

Set in the natural environment of northern France, criss-crossed with water ways, market gardening as well as breeding remain the only productive activities. Nevertheless, the number of fenlanders has seriously diminished from 200 farms in the 1970 to 40 in 2010. Other elements are now intervening such as ecology, preservation and development like the Natural Regional Park and the Romelaere Natural Reserve, or leisure activities like waterfowl hunting, fishing and tourism.

Through images and words Return to the Brouck expresses this new reality, confronting the actors of the past - young fenlanders of the 70s - with the present. Juxtaposing the images of the past with those of 2010. The core of the film still remains, as in the 70s, the vivid problem of the present and the future of the Audomarois Fenland and its inhabitants.

Included on the DVD is the original feature:

The Fenland (Le Brouck) (black & white, 38 min, 1972)

Devised and shot in close collaboration with a group of eight local fenlanders, young men and women who lived and worked as market gardeners in the area of Saint Omer, northern France, the film bears witness to a particular moment in time - a moment of recognition when these young agriculturalists, who belong to a relatively closed specific socio-economic group, asked themselves some hard practical questions about the social and economic problems facing their kind of agriculture.

The film aims to be sociological to the extent that it reveals and fixes a moment of social change. But it takes care not to freeze this in an ideological or political analysis; it does not try to smooth over the positions they take, which are often contradictory yet all the more illuminating for that.

It was the young fenlanders themselves who chose the sequences to film and the themes to bring up in the discussions. These young people offered their views on the future of the Fenland, on aspects of trade unionism in agriculture and the possible options open to them. More than the commentary, which serves merely as introduction or to make a link, it is the discussions between the young people that really weave the film together.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

The Fenland

Festival dei Popoli, Florence, 1972

Festival of Ethnographical & Sociological Film, Venice, 1972

Festival of Visual Culture, Finland, 2010

Return to the Brouck

Days of Ethnographic Cinema, Russia, 2012

SVA Ethnographic Film Festival, USA, 2012

Camera in the Fields, France, 2011

31st Nordic Anthropological Film Association, Scotland, 2011

30th International Ethnographic Film Festival Jean Rouch, Paris, 2011

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Encountering Jean Rouch

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:05:00 GMT

Encountering Jean Rouch
Buy Now: $275.00

This short film was shot in 2002 during Bilan du Film Ethnographic for the purpose of introducing Jean Rouch to the audience at 2003 Taiwan International Ethnographic film festival. Unexpectedly, Jean Rouch passed away in 2004. In this film Jean Rouch talked about his new marriage, his anger towards the moving of the artifacts of the Mankind Museum, his anarchistic nature, his dreams and fantasies, etc..

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Diary from Rivesaltes 1941-1942

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Diary from Rivesaltes 1941-1942
Buy Now: $320.00

From August to October 1942, over 2250 Jews were deported from the internment camp of Rivesaltes to Auschwitz by way of Drancy. Among them were 110 children. Friedel Bohny-Reiter, a nurse with the Swiss Aid to Children, worked in this camp in the South of France. Like many others in the formerly unoccupied zone, it was run by the French. Once a military camp, it had been converted in 1941 into a transit camp regrouping Jewish, Gypsy and Spanish people living in the area or who had fled to the free zone as refugees. Thanks to the young nurse from Basel, many children were probably saved from certain death. The film follows the nurse on a visit to that still intact site as well as through the pages of the journal she wrote in those dark days, published by Editions Zoë, Geneva in 1993.

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The Heart's Nebula

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:27:00 GMT

The Heart's Nebula
Buy Now: $320.00

A trip through the heart. A poetic, moving, cruel, ironic, at times a cynical trip. A trip that takes us deep into the heart of the film maker, into her aches, her joys, her medical problems, among them the placing of a pacemaker. It gives her an excuse to take a closer look at other hearts: the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the small mummified heart of Louis XVII and its weird wanderings, the heart of a transplantee. How does one live with someone else's heart? Hearts of sugar, hearts of gold in the Brussel's Heart Museum. Chicken, beef, and quail hearts at the butcher's. The heart of a surgeon who grafts hearts compared to a gardener's who grafts trees. The trips ends in the Ice Palace with a poem enjoining us to donate our hearts. "That sudden weakness of my heart, two years ago, brought me closer to death. I realized I was mortal, that my allotted span was shrinking, sadly shrinking away. Death? Ending as a small pile of dust or as a skeleton? Unable to think, unable to love, to become or not to become a wandering soul. What would I do, what would I change during the scant years I still had to live? Love more? Visit Easter Island? The fact is that I've not changed anything but hearing of physical heart problems does bother me. 'He died from a heart failure, an infarct, a heart attack...' I now relate to each of other peoples' heart stories" — Jacqueline Veuve

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Jean Rouch - Premier Film, 1947-1991

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:12:00 GMT

Jean Rouch - Premier Film, 1947-1991
Buy Now: $295.00

The director, Dominique Dubosc, gives Jean Rouch the opportunity to improvise a new commentary for his first film made in 1947, In the Land of the Black Magi (Au pays des mages noirs) of a Songhay possession dance in Niger. Rouch explains the sacrifices he made due to the producer that took on his film and the “monster” thus created; his footage was re-edited with a new ending, new titles, stock footage, “tropical muzak,” and a newsreel-style narration heavy on drama and highlighting the exotic. After viewing the first version, Rouch critiques his own work and puts it in perspective in the context of the time.

Finally, the intelligence and insight of Rouch emerge as he “finishes” his first film: “This is not only an evocation of the beginnings of Jean Rouch, ethnologue and film director - it is his first film. One sees him improvising a new commentary to In the Land of the Black Magi, just as he improvised the voiceovers of most of his other films.” The film transforms from a product of colonialism built around the commentary in which “you no longer see the images,” into a new form in which the film's true meaning is illuminated and the humanity of the subjects restored.

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Jean Rouch and His Camera in the Heart of Africa

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:12:00 GMT

Jean Rouch and His Camera in the Heart of Africa
Buy Now: $320.00

"Filming filmmakers is not an easy task: from time to time there are glimpses of show-off tactics, private jokes which make holiday and family films so unbearable. To undertake such a project in Africa is almost acrobatic. There are so many obstacles ... Philo Bregstein and Dutch television, no doubt for the first time in the history of world television, have managed to make a successful film on filmmakers from Niger, avoiding all the standard traps lying around for Western travelers, thoughtless givers of 'poisoned presents.'"

-- Jean Rouch

Jean Rouch and His Camera in the Heart of Africa provides an in-depth look at the film work of Jean Rouch and his associates from Niger who participated in the production of many of Rouch's Niger-based films. Most of the camera and technical work was accomplished by Niger filmmakers. Bregstein, Rouch, Damoure, Lam, their friend Tollou and others converse about filmmaking and filmmakers who have had historical influence in the field; segments from several of Rouch's earlier film works are interspersed with the filming in Niger and with interviews. Some of the films from which clips are included and discussed by Rouch and Bregstein are Chronicle of a Summer, Moi, un Noir, Tourou et Bitti, Battle on the Great River, Jaguar, Les Maitres Fous, The Lion Hunters, and Petit a Petit.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Cinema du Reel, 1979

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Juliette of the Herbs

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:12:00 GMT

Juliette of the Herbs
Buy Now: $320.00

Juliette of the Herbs is a beautifully filmed lyrical portrait of the life and work of Juliette de Bairacli Levy: world renowned herbalist, author, breeder of Afghan hounds, friend of the Roma, traveller in search of herbal wisdom and the pioneer of holistic veterinary medicine.

For more than 60 years Juliette lived with the Roma, nomads and peasants of the world, learning the healing arts from these peoples who live close to nature. Juliette's well-loved and now classic herbals for animals and for children have been a vital inspiration for the present day herbal renaissance and holistic animal care community. Juliette's extraordinary life story is as colourful and as exciting as her tremendous wealth of herbal knowledge.

Filmed on location with Juliette and her Afghan hound in Greece, Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerland, England and America, and interwoven with Juliette's vast collection of archival photographs, together with scenes of Roma people dancing and Bedouins with their herds, Juliette of the Herbs is an inspiring portrait of a remarkable healer.

“This video lifted my heart and made me grateful for all that Juliette has done to help the animals.”
— Helen McKinnon, author, It's For The Animals

“[Juliette of the Herbs] made me look at how my life is now, still close to the earth, but not close enough... I'm happy to have seen a glimpse into her life. It encourages me to live as radically as I want. Tish's film is a grand one.”
— Janisse Ray, author, The Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

“This film is magnificient. It was fascinating to watch our six year old daughter Lillian's responses as well. She said, “Daddy this is so beautiful I think I could cry a little bit.”
— Jim Schley, editor-in-chief, Chelsea Green Publishing

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Feature Award Nominee, International Documentary Association, 1998

Best Documentary, Seattle Intn'l Film Festival - Women in Cinema, 1999

Merit Award for Storytelling, International Wildlife Film Festival, 1999

Honorable Mention, Green Extreme Film Festival, 1999

Artist's Award, Laguna Beach Film Festival, 1999

Winner, EarthVision Film Festival, 1999

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La Memoire Dure

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

La Memoire Dure
Buy Now: $320.00

Ibrahim lived with his uncle in the woods in Mali, for a few days he attended Koran school. He arrived in France using his cousin's passport. Alpha comes from Liberia, he lived in the city and during the war his family was dispersed; he arrived in France with a false passport. Nawel lived in Algeria where his large family was forced to have him adopted and taken to France. All these children attended the same preparation class for learning French in a compulsory school in Paris taught by the teacher Pascale. This fast course (total immersion) is aimed at inserting them as soon as possible in normal primary school classes.

For 9 months, the film director, an anthropologist teaching Visual Anthropology at the University of Tromso in Norway, filmed these children from various nationalities, showing how they were received in France and the relationship established between teachers and pupils. The children learn not only the language but also the values of their host society. Each child has strengths that often cannot be utilized effectively by the school but that are brought to light in the film. The struggle and endurance of the teacher reveals her to be a dedicated and passionate educator.

The children, their parents or care takers, teachers and administrators were involved as part of the filmmaking process. Issues of immigration, cultural assimilation, social integration and educational philosophy are analyzed within the context of this film.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Jury Prize, Nuoro International Film Festival Italy, 2000

Tromsø International Film Festival, Norway 2001

Festival International du Cinema du Reel, Paris, France, Centre Pompidou 2001

Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Musee de l’Homme, Paris 2001

Beeld for Beeld, Anthropological Film Festival, Amsterdam 2001

British Film Institute, London, Conference: Global Image or Global Media? U.K. 2001

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Pink Mountain Sand

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 10:58:00 GMT

Pink Mountain Sand
Buy Now: $295.00

Long ago, there were no roads to the chalets in the high mountain pastures. All the material for a new chalet had to be carried up by man or mule, so the peasants who built and cared for these chalets used the nearest rocks available and found a way to extract the sand needed for cement right on the spot. They used to burn clods of earth for three days until all vegetable residue was burned away and only the minerals remained as pink sand. This custom slowly disappeared at the beginning of the 21st century. However, 83-year-old Henri Chillez remembers seeing his father doing this when he was ten. Thanks to him, we were able, in 1987, to reconstruct the operation and film each step needed to change earth into pink sand.

Films in the Wood Crafts series

Armand Rouiller, Sledge-maker
Arnold Golay, Toy-maker

The Bapst Brothers, Carriers

Claude Lebet, Luthier

François Pernet, Carpenter and Sculptor
Joseph Doutaz & Olivier Veuve, Shingle-makers

A Little Corner of Paradise

Marcellin Babey, Turner
Michel Marlétaz, Cooper

Pink Mountain Sand

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