ARTE Distribution

Discover the history of European peasants, from the 6th century to the present day, in a four-part series that travels the European countryside following the traces of its hidden history, which has long remained unwritten.

From the sixth to the twentieth century, most of the European population was peasants. In other words, peasant history can be read as the history of Europe itself.  However, because their culture and historical tradition was oral, most of the peasant history is unknown. The dominant ones were the only ones to leave written traces and they spoke about peasants hardly ever. There are many descriptions of fields and harvests, but the peasants remained invisible – like if the wheat grew by itself. On very few occasions, they appeared in written stories but always from the point of view of the masters. They were described as a wild and uncultivated mass that should not be educated because it would prevent them from working the earth. Today, the contemporary historians’ perspective sheds a new light on the history of the rural world to see the peasants no longer as passive objects but as the autonomous actors of their own history.

Thanks to the Internet and streaming platforms that have spread Stand Up internationally, this popular comic art has become the prism through which major contemporary issues are seen: in the abundance and sometimes the clash of identities, a global movement that challenges the established order.
Stand up told by its icons: Jamel Debbouze, Blanche Gardin, Ali Wong, Vir Das, Fary and Hannah Gasby.

The success of stand-up comedy can be measured by the growth of comedy clubs in cities around the world in recent years. It can also be seen through the investments of an international streaming platform like Netflix, which keeps producing and broadcasting shows, while scouting for new local talent. All over the world, young people are picking up a simple microphone to laugh at themselves, society and its mores.
The protest dimension of this comic art is also the instrument of an untimely and sarcastic speech, where the most agitated fringe of a society, its youth, gives itself the right to express its moods on its state of health, its palpitations, its dreams and its disappointments. Stand-up comedy is a way of breaking down minds and fixed opinions, to slip, through its sense of observation and absurdity, new considerations on our relations in society. To speak of stand-up is to speak of the contemporary state of society.

This 3 film series explores the depth of the connection, both physical and spiritual, between three nomadic tribes of Mongolia and animals. In each film, the protagonist struggles with an identity crisis between modernity and tradition. However, by returning to the wilderness and bonding with the sacred animal, he finds a way to resolve his inner conflict.

Whether it's a woman convincing a camel to adopt a baby through music, a child trying to cure her illness by finding her protective reindeer, or a teenage girl breaking free of gender codes by training a golden eagle, these three stories expose the strength of the relationships between the nomadic tribes of Mongolia and the local animals. While the relationships between the protagonists and the animals may seem strange, exotic, the conflicts and problems they face are universal. They awaken something familiar in us, evoke myths and common beliefs. In each story, the iconic animal acts as a mirror through which humans learn about themselves and the dilemmas they face in a changing modern world. 
 
"These ancient rituals of human-animal connection are among the last authentic forms of cultural expression for nomads. As an ethnographic filmmaker, I would like to document these rituals before they disappear, these ancient bonds that connect us to nature and animals. It is this secret language that I would like to convey in this trilogy." Hamid Sardar

The imaginary universes of fantasy irrigate literature, cinema, video and role-playing games. But what crucible was it forged in? What are its founding works? Illustrator John Howe, the concept artist of the Lord of the Rings series, takes us on a four-part journey to discover the artists who have crafted fantasy.

Over the past twenty years, our views on Fantasy have shifted tremendously. Long reduced to repetitive adventures in comic books or movies with kitschy settings and poor scenarios, Fantasy now faces higher expectations from readers and critics alike, who demand complex heroes, strong female characters, original universes, in tune with more modern issues.
From its distant origins in myths and legends to its emergence into popular culture in the second half of the 20th century, fantasy has gradually taken shape over a history spanning more than a century. From the romantic Germany of the Brothers Grimm to the Texas plains where Robert E. Howard gave birth to the character of Conan, from the socialist utopias of William Morris to the tortured and eccentric mind of HP Lovecraft, John Howe’s travels will be interspersed with animated sequences breathing life into the stories that laid the foundations of the genre. To understand what makes these works so relevant and prevalent today, John Howe will be assisted by renowned experts such as S. T. Joshi, author of a 1200-page biography of Lovecraft, and Patrice Louinet, editor and translator of Robert E. Howard.
 

A series made of hijacked images to understand in a funny and quirky way how our opinions are influenced, and our consent manufactured. Discover from the inside the range of strategies used without our knowledge to shape our desires!

The incredible and untold story of the invention, development and improvement of China's surveillance and repression system over the decades. A new light on China’s totalitarian power following the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.

LAOdong and GAIzao mean "work" and "reform" in Chinese, so LAOGAI is the concept of reform through work. Starting from the present time – the Communist party dealing with Covid – the series will take you back to the origins of the laogai and follow its evolution at the rhythm of the great political caesuras of contemporary China, each period having its share of purges, accumulating one on top of the other, and sparing no sector of Chinese society. A spectacular documentary series that will reveal that China is the greatest totalitarian power of all times.

A new globalized phenomenon : cell phones recording images of over-equipped police facing unarmed furious crowds. The war of images further polarizes police and protesters.

How did it come to this? New revolts, less and less supervised, subjected to a low intensity war. We must avoid killing. “Less lethal” is the new norm: rubber bullets, grenades... But these dangerous weapons can cause harm.
For democracies, the challenges are multiplying. How can the relationship between the population and the police be restored? What are the responses to street disturbances? 

Our brain constantly simplifies reality, opening the door to false logical thought patterns: cognitive biases. These intuitive mechanisms create errors of judgment affecting individual and societal behaviours, that marketing loves to play with, giving birth to fake news.

There is a multitude of biases anchored deep in our brain that leads to errors of perception, evaluation, interpretation... Originally, their function is to allow our brain to save time and energy by developing mental shortcuts. They also facilitate our sociability. In the complexity of our modern world though, this cerebral trick sometimes turns against us, and certain ancestral mechanisms are no longer adapted to the reality of our daily life. Marketing and advertising never stop playing with them; swindlers exploit them for their own benefit; fake news are spread thanks to them. Thus, a better understanding of how it works is a real individual and societal challenge.

An incredible investigation following a cry for help written in Mandarin and hidden in the instructions for a pregnancy test purchased in France. This investigation takes us to the very heart of China and its prison factories.

After two cries for help found in the United States in 2012 and in Great Britain in 2019, this is the first time that a missive in Mandarin elaborated and argued will be revealed. A 21st century message in a bottle. This letter, which describes the atrocious functioning of the Chinese prison system, is the result of an extraordinary investigation that crosses borders. It is a hybrid investigation between an investigation to identify the links that make the exploitation of prisoners possible and a quest to get closer to the person who wrote the letter and their fellow prisoners. Our "comfort" is based on a system similar to the one that existed in the United States 150 years ago: slavery.

Every culture creates its own rituals to face the stages that punctuate our lives (being born, growing up, seducing, bonding and dying), and each episode of this series will focus on 2 different cultures and their different or similar way to handle it. 

Being born, growing up, seducing, bonding, dying: this cycle of life is immutable. It is the very foundation of our condition as a human being, beyond culture. It leads them inexorably towards the end – after all, to advance in life is to approach death, and from this point of view, to live becomes a frightening adventure! This is why humans have invented accompanying rituals that allow life to be structured in specific stages: the collective rituals of passage from one state to another allow the individual to construct a levelheaded perception of their mortal condition.
 

Meet those who, throughout the world, celebrate these “passages of life”. Purification, isolation, pain, transformation of the body: each group has its own practice, its beliefs, its prohibitions, which reveal its identity. To share with them these ritual is to penetrate at the heart of their culture, to understand their fears, their desires, their vision of life, their way of responding to “the difficult task of growing up”.

It allow 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 the world of adults. What do rites of passage bring to practitioners? How do they help them to pass a stage in life? How do they change the ones performing them?

Travel around the world's kitchens to discover the most popular recipes from each country.  Follow the advice of international amateur and professional cooks: choice of ingredients, presentation tips and tastings on the menu!

Do you want to impress your guests and make them "gustatively" travel? Follow the advice of international amateur and professional cooks to make sweet and savory dishes: choice of ingredients, presentation tips and tasting buds on the menu!

From Cape Town to Casablanca, from Goma to Algiers, the African breakdance scene has imposed itself internationally and the discipline is preparing to make its entry into the Olympic Games. 

From the South Africans’ smashing entry on the Battle of the Year stage in 1997, to the crowning of Moroccan Lil Zoo at the 2018 World Championship, breakdancing has continued to grow in Africa. His Bboys & Bgirls reveal the mechanisms, styles and multiple influences that inspired them. Through their stories, several generations of dancers’ struggles and aspirations take shape.