A film by Christian Lajoumard – 8′
Ponta do Sol “the spit of the sun” is a small town in the extreme north of the island of Santo Antao, Cape Verde.
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 52′
Throughout the year, the activities of five Corsican farmers in their daily life.
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 52′
In 1675, 800 members of the village of Oitylo, in Peloponnese, left Greece to flee the Ottomans. They found refuge in Corsica, where, after many unexpected adventures, they founded Cargèse. Even in the present day, through distance and centuries, connections between the two villages endure.
A film by Iv C. Ching – 75′
In 2014, the Thai military junta takes power by force and forces the First Minister to resign. This military putsch comes after popular opposing movements while the elections are being prepared.
Aum Neko is a young transgender woman studying in Bangkok. While Thai society undergoes an identity crisis, her own desire to realize herself as a woman doubles as political activism in favor of democracy and against all forms of discrimination. Her discourse, original and provocative, quickly garners a considerable audience, breaking down social walls and destabilizing traditional elites. Her dream becomes a threat to the established order which hunts her ferociously.
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 64′
Africa is a continent rich with cultures which have, over centuries, produced some of the most remarkable works of art in our universal heritage. These works, for the large part, are conserved in institutions or private collections outside Africa. This obviously poses the serious problem of Southern heritage being accessible only to Northerners.
“Africa, Collected” is an inventory of the complex relations between the North and the South regarding traditional African art. By interviewing collectors, gallery curators, museum curators, researchers, philosophers, sociologists and artists, the film confronts and puts into perspective the different voices presiding over ownership of these works. It traces subjects of discussion which, in coming years, will be more and more relevant.
A film by Christian Argentino – 52′
A historical, political, and social examination of vendetta in the Mediterranean. In Corsica, in Sardinia, in Sicily, in Crete, as well as in Albania, where the rules of Kanun govern social rules.
The political history of each territory, the weight of the clan, codes of honor, symbolism of blood and the primordial roles of women are some aspects to explain this unusual heritage.
A film by Laurent Lutaud – 52′
At the border of Marseilles, the Berre lagoon is one of the largest saltwater lagoons in Europe. From an ecological perspective, this place is a melting pot of all our planet’s problems and contradictions. Both a wildlife reserve and an example of nature’s destruction by man, it has been the subject of ecological study for a decade, making it the most studied lagoon on the Mediterranean coast.
This film follows and documents the restoration work of the Berre, meeting those for whom the lagoon is an indispensable part of daily life: fishermen, people who live alongside it and industrial workers, but also scientists dedicated to monitoring and rehabilitating this endangered ecosystem.
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 73′
The Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc is located in the South of Vietnam. Close to the coasts of Cambodia, it has long been a source of conflict for the two countries. An unforgiving land with activities centered around the sea, long isolated, the island opened a few years ago to mass tourism. The landscape and the coast changed Quickly, capital Q.
“Fragile Paradise” isn’t a multi-perspective exploration of the brutality of change in a long-static place, but the melancholic portrait of what remains at the dawn of a world turning upside-down.
A film by Marie-Laure Désidéri and Christian Argentino – 52′
Giovanna Marini passionately collected traditional Italian songs – still alive and known in the sixties – since a young age: sacred songs, profane songs, or those of social justice. An activist approach is born of her encounter with Pasolini.
A singer, author, and composer, we follow her daily life, in concert and in her school in Rome. For this exceptional woman, transmitting popular knowledge is a necessity and an element of her artistic life.
A film by Marie-Laure Désidéri and Christian Argentino – 52′
The winds… The wind!… How to seize it? How to film it? Let us follow the steps of the wind… Powerful and unseizable! It is this wonder at the fragile and the impalpable that this film conveys.
A film by Jean-Daniel Bécache – 66′
There exists in Africa a populace for which no studies, no research, no t-shirts are made. Not an ethnic group with tree bark loincloths – but the Whites! Taking the opposite migratory direction.
Driven by the European crisis to find better futures, adventurous ones, they aren’t yesteryear’s expatriates. In Cameroon, they’re even sometimes called ‘Fake Whites’! Contradicting dispersed ideas, Africa has always been a land of immigration. Still, for the most part, virgin land, immense, and winterless, Africa becomes an ‘El Dorado’ tour, refuge, renaissance and sometimes snare for three characters with unique destinies.
A film by Dominique Comtat – 74′
We live immersed in the concept of a thing to which we have given the name Time. But what the word means, we can’t explain; we are as fishes, unable to define water. And yet we consider ourselves to have it or lack it, to spend it or risk wasting it, because we think it passes, and it amounts to something.
And when we attempt to measure it, is it something other than ourselves that we measure?
A film by Valérie Deschênes – 52′
The ability to feed oneself was the first motivation for men to work. Since the beginning of time, nuns and abbots have cultivated the land, gathered fruits and vegetables, brewed beer, cooked soups and baked confections to feed the community and to assure economic independence, but also to conserve a connection with the outside world. A walk in the France of abbeys and monasteries given rhythm by work and meditation.
A film by Jean-Robert Thomann – 57′
Every year in Taiwan, the seventh lunar month corresponds to the month of the ghosts: the gates of hell open and the spirits wander for thirty days. During this period, several highly codified rituals are practiced to satisfy the spirits: celebrations, food offerings, dances, karaoke. In Huwei, a small town in the south of the island, these traditions remain particularly alive.
A film by Simon Bright – 84′
How did Robert Mugabe, the national hero of Zimbabwe’s independence, become a dictator plunging his country into chaos? Through several rare archives and discussions, this film retraces the steps of the man and the history of the country. Thirty years later, Robert Mugabe is still in power!
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 52′
The Pokot people reside in the northwest region of Kenya and in parts of Uganda. Proud and fiercely independent, they are proprietors of a strong culture and particularly vigorous traditions. Among these traditions is FGM, the practice of mutilating young girls as an obligatory passage into adulthood.
This film is a compilation of accounts from those who live this tradition – those who combat and those who submit to it.
A film by Arnaud Soulier – 52′
Through an experiment initiated by The Republic of Congo, France, and the European Union to reintroduce social peace and democracy to society after ten years of civil war in The Republic of Congo. This film explores the changes in the role of developmental aid since the sixties and asks if a democratic society can be introduced to The Republic of Congo through discussions with Congolese civil society personalities and a French non-governmental organization.
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 74′
On the island of Oléron, throughout the seasons, the work of the peasants of the sea: salt workers, oyster farmers, fishermen. Pushed and shoved by the wind, the sea spray, the rain, these men and women are the heroes of a daily life where man is still dependent on the good graces and generosity of nature with all its mood swings.
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 52′
Koteba is a form of social satire played in a burlesque in the villages of the Mandingo area of Mali. Once a year, the city’s vices are put on in a show and mocked in a public square. This secular tradition still exists in the countryside but numerous changes have seen the light of day since the 1980s. A movement organized by comedians transposed it to an urban setting, and its immense popularity hugely impacted Mali’s political climate. Therapeutic Koteba, televised Koteba, publicized Koteba… “Koteba Nights” presents the different aspects and adaptations of this form of expression, typically African and deeply universal.
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 52′
In international medicinal conferences, the initials U.B. hide, under an innocent appearance, one of the deadliest flus on the planet: the Ulcer of Buruli.
We still know little about the factors of propagation of the Ulcer of Buruli, but as it’s a growing disease it has become a priority for organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO). The Ulcer of Buruli massively affects children and is characterized by destruction of the dermis on an important surface. The Ulcer of Buruli massively affects children and is characterized by destruction of the dermis on an important surface. Though it rarely leads to death, it is very debilitating and leads to a total inability to work.
This film exposes the work of the doctors, nurses, and physical therapists who battle this disease in Côte d’Ivoire.
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 52′
Harouna, Aboucabar, and Zeinabou, three Nigerien children all having extremely developed Noma, will be transferred to Europe to be ‘reconstructed’ there. Over between eight and twelve months – depending on their time of hospitalization – we follow the evolution of these children in a completely different social context from the one where they grew up : one being accommodated by a hosted family, the other in a foyer with other children from a wide variety of nationalities, all come to Europe to be treated.
A film by Jean-Robert Thomann – 52′
Between 1950 and 1960, around 100,000 Taiwanese, mostly natives, convert to Christianity. The missionaries who witnessed it called it the ‘miracle of Formosa’. This film explores the origins and the conditions of the conversions and their impact on modern Taiwanese society.
A film by Jean-Robert Thomann – 26′
The fishing port of Nan fang Ao is situated on the coast of the island of Taiwan. Facing the port is the Taoist temple Nan Tian Gong, dedicated to Matsu, goddess of the sea. Without fishing, the village would see its activities disappear… and to assure peace and prosperity, one must pray to Matsu.
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 26′
Le Havre: a city with an architecture totally remodeled after the war, rebuilt in twenty years on the rubble and ruins left by the bombings. A vast port complex which makes it the largest port in France. Commercial port, industrial port, transport port… A bridgehead with England, friends especially since the first stage of the transatlantic journey, an open door on the oceans and the lands beyond the seas.
“Le Havre, the Ocean Gateway” is a film about the port universe of this regional metropolis through the components of its culture: stones, boats, men… The common history of the city and the sea.
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 26′
Lorient, a city created for the sea, in which all maritime activities intersect and collide… From the “great fishing” to the navy, the city has been invested by all components of the world of the sea.
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 52′
A modest and sensitive portrayal of children affected by Noma. This little-known and often fatal disease affects 100,000 children per year in Africa, South America, and South Asia. Focusing on Niger, this documentary follows the lives of these children as they are aided by the non-governmental organization Sentinels, which combats the development of the disease in collaboration with local teams.
This is an example of the North/South divide for access to a minimum of care: food and medical attention, but also a message of hope for future generations.
A film by Jean-Robert Thomann – 78′
Sporadically, we hear of Taiwan in media: China’s anger at the island, the frigate affair… Aside from these few minutes, most Europeans cannot characterize the island in any way other than the formula methodically engraved into common memory: ‘Made in Taiwan’. Populated after waves of forced migration, Taiwan today is a half-breed country where the question of identity is at the heart of social and political debate. Through portraits of three people from different communities on the island, the film tells the complex story of this land, which, beyond its economic miracle, tries to find its place and its identity when faced with Continental China.
A film by Christian Lajoumard – 52′
Corsica is often presented in an almost caricatural fashion in its glorification as an isle of beauty or in its presentation of the conflicts which it experiences.
And yet this rock in the sea has many facets and is infinitely more complicated and culturally rich than the multitudes of films about it represent. The women and men of Corsica are far from the “Image d’Épinal” attached to residents of the Mediterranean, speaking rarely and hiding emotion. Profoundly attached to their land and to their traditions, they maintain a strong relationship with the universe and form a sort of symbiosis with superb and violent nature.
It is this connection between man and nature which the film reveals, weaving the portrait of a world where words, sentiments, activities and natural elements make up the vivacious image of an island rich in history whose face is turned towards the future. To quote one of the characters, “Here, we may have wasted less chances for the society or societies of tomorrow”.
