Nous paysans
In barely a century, French peasants have seen their world profoundly turned upside down. While they once made up the vast majority of the country, today they are only a tiny minority and are faced with an immense challenge: to continue to feed France. From the figure of the simple tenant farmer described by Emile Guillaumin at the beginning of the 20th century to the heavy toll paid by peasants during the Great War, from the beginnings of mechanization in the inter-war period to the ambivalent figure of the peasant under the Occupation, From the unbridled race to industrialization in post-war France to the realization that it is now necessary to rethink the agricultural model and invent the agriculture of tomorrow, the film looks back at the long march of French peasants.
Le Siècle des couturières
The Invisible Nation
The Algonquin once lived in harmony with the vast territory they occupied. This balance was upset when the Europeans arrived in the 16th century. Gradually, their Aboriginal traditions were undermined and their natural resources plundered. Today, barely 9,000 Algonquin are left. They live in about 10 communities, often enduring abject poverty and human rights abuses. These Aboriginal people are suffering the threat to their very existence in silence. Richard Desjardins and Robert Monderie have decided to sound the alarm before it's too late.
L'Amour vache
My Sin Is Loving You
This film depicts the laborious and isolated existence of Emilia, a working class, urban, Latina housewife in the U.S. Emilia's detached attitude towards her husband and children suggests deep unhappiness and a fatalistic resignation. She vicariously experiences her dreams of romance and adventure through the female protagonist of her favorite soap opera. The film intermixes the fantasy world of the television program with the reality of the Emilia's daily life, exploring the profound sense of dissatisfaction and acute feelings of entrapment experienced by women within society's traditional roles. There is not much difference between Emilia's "real" life and her soap opera life in that the woman is confined in both environments.
Bertrand's Farm
1972 in Haute-Savoie (France) : the Bertrand's farm, with a hundred dairy cows owned by three bachelor brothers, is filmed for the first time. In 1997, they were the subject of Gilles Perret's first movie, as they let their farm to their nephew Patrick and his wife Hélène. Nowadays, 25 years later, Gilles Perret take another look at this farm, managed by Hélène who will step down. Through their words, an intimate, social and economic history of the rural world.
India's Forgotten People
From respected forgers of Armour for Hindu kings in the 16th century through to impoverished nomadic blacksmiths who forge and sell items from waste metal scraps.The history and story of India's proud but largely forgotten Gadia Lohar community is for the first time sensitively investigated and revealed in Deana Uppal's documentary 'The Forgotten People'.
Puerto Rico: Paradise Invaded
Film analyzes the economic relationship in 1977 between Puerto Rico and the United States. Impositions of short term economic changes (brief migrations of farm workers) and explotation of island natives by corporations are examined. Puerto Rican life in New York City and Puerto Rican nationalism are also discussed.