ARTE Distribution

Our desire to celebrate is often linked to our relationship with the cosmos and nature. Since time immemorial, the key moments of the agricultural year have been celebrated, just as those of the lunar or solar calendar. People celebrate to implore and thank Nature, to celebrate fertility, the return of the stars, life, and thus ward off death. These are the festivals of sowing, the solstices, and the harvests… 

Why have humans felt the need to wear masks for thousands of years? What is liberated when we leave our everyday identity behind? To understand this, anthropologist Anne-Sylvie Malbrancke will attend two festivals in which anonymity, made possible by costumes, plays a central role: the Diablada de Pillaro (Ecuador), during which men, despite being devout Catholics, transform themselves into devils, and the masked ball of the Cayenne Carnival (French Guiana), dominated by a mysterious figure... the “Touloulou.”

mmes au total, dont la plupart évoluent librement sur cet îlot de 2,23 kilomètres carrés recouvert de maquis. Un paradis dont il est impossible de s’évader, alors qu’il n’y a pas de murs d’enceinte et que les portes des cellules restent ouvertes en journée. La terre ferme étant distante de 34 kilomètres, c’est la mer qui constitue une barrière infranchissable.

Fogo Island, in Cape Verde, is dominated by the very active Pico do Fogo volcano. For more than two centuries, a community of irreducibles has settled in the crater and cohabits with the fire monster despite the dangers.

In the Tigray region of Ethiopia, Orthodox Christians confront their fears and baptize their children in churches perched high in the sky. At 800 meters, the troglodyte church of Abuna Yemata Guh is possibly the most inaccessible church on the planet.

Every day in this extraordinary place, men and women risk their lives to edge along the narrow crest to place their dead in the cavities in the rock, and to baptize their newborns on the top of the mountain.
On the day of the baptism, Khasa and her baby leave the village and head for the church. Draped in the traditional white, they walk for more than an hour to the mountain. At the bottom, the young mother scales the rock face, her feet and hands bare. The climb is difficult and extremely dangerous.
In the church, the priest and his assistant are waiting. The murals and ceiling of the church date from the 14th century and have been perfectly preserved. They are considered to be the most exceptional in the region of Tigray. The ceremony begins…

Although pimentón de la Vera comes from a small valley in Extremadura, it is the must-have ingredient in Spanish cuisine. Without it, there would not be any chorizo, nor would there be paella. Contrary to what one might expect, this premium product requires tremendous skill and labor. Here, pimentón de la Vera is a serious business, one that, over the years, helped the region reinvent itself and brought people together.

In the Marquesas Islands, an archipelago floating in the Pacific a thousand leagues from any continent, tattooing was a strong marker of identity. But with the arrival of colonizers and missionaries, this ancestral custom was banished. Now considered an art form in its own right, Patutiki is reclaiming the hearts, bodies and even faces of the inhabitants of these beautiful Polynesian islands.

Iceland is a land of glaciers and volcanoes. This island with its black soil was still wild and uninhabited when the first Vikings arrived in the 9th century. The first colonists settled in the bay of Reykjavik and soon spread across the whole territory. 

From the first Icelandic parliament in Thingvellir to the myths that endure today, the arrival of these pioneers would change this isle of ice and fire forever.

This 10-part series takes you on an anthropological and cultural journey to ten destinations around the world, to reflect on our globalized consumption patterns. An invitation to travel in the most beautiful way possible to the last bastions of local customs and cultures.

Let us meet the men and women who make these markets a place of commercial and cultural exchange. While the globalized economy leads to a standardization of tastes and consumption, going to a market allows you to dive immediately into a local culture, to meet its inhabitants, its food, its smells, its colors, its customs. An invitation to travel in the most beautiful way possible, to enjoy the abundant and varied riches of nature and meet people from different cultures around the world, who are the beating hearts of these markets. 

Follow an international team of scientists on a mission to develop groundbreaking solutions to save the Great Barrier Reef and its 9,000 unique species from extinction.
 

These species interact with the coral to form a complex and delicate ecosystem whose survival depends on each and every one of them. Yet today the coral—and therefore all the organisms that depend on it—is in great danger. In a visually stunning series about one the most beautiful natural habitats on Earth, our international award winning crew has followed a team of scientists for 5 years. Their mission is to develop groundbreaking technological solutions to save the GBR from destruction.

From India to the Bissagos Islands, discover the world’s last matriarchies through the stories of the women who run them. Each of the 5 films in this collection is an immersion in one of these societies, as seen through the eyes of a woman.

Every culture has its own rituals for dealing with the different stages that punctuate our lives (being born, growing up, seducing, bonding and dying). Each episode of this series will focus on two different cultures and their distinct or similar ways to deal with these issues. 

Being born, growing up, seducing, bonding, dying: this cycle of life is immutable. It is the very foundation of our condition as human beings, beyond culture. It leads us inexorably towards the end – after all, moving forward in life means moving closer to death, and from that point of view, living becomes a frightening adventure! This is why humans have invented accompanying rituals that help structure life in specific stages: the collective rites of passage from one stage to another provide individuals with a calmer perception of their mortal condition.
 

Meet those who, throughout the world, celebrate these life's transitions. Purification, isolation, pain, transformation of the body: every group has its own practices, beliefs and prohibitions that reveal its identity. By sharing these rituals with them, we gain an insight into their culture, their fears, their desires, their vision of life, their way of responding to “the difficult task that is growing up”.

It allows us to question our own anxieties and perspectives and reflect on the usefulness of these ritualized occasions. Today, our Western societies are becoming more and more emancipated from them: people are free to live out their love with whomever they choose, cremation is secular, and graduating is no longer a widely recognized official entry into adulthood. What do rites of passage teach practitioners? How do they help them move on to the next step? What kind of transformation does one undergo?