ARTE Distribution

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?

Dive into 5 of the most visited European heritage emblems and their breathtaking, unexpected and diversified wildlife. This ambitious series is an amazing immersion in the heart of incredible ecosystems, with the people who preserve it everyday.

Mont Saint-Michel, the Loire valley châteaux, Alhambra or Bastei Bridge… Every year, these breathtaking sites attract tourists from across the world. But hidden in the meanderings off the beaten track, fascinating and unexpected stories unfold : the stories of the wildlife that inhabits these places.
For, although these famous French cultural heritage sites have been built over the centuries, they are located within areas of outstanding natural beauty, with their own iconic species such as the Red deer of Chambord, the Black stork of Pont Bastei or the toads of the Alhambra.
Today, the preservation of these exceptional sites can no longer be done without taking into account the wildlife. And after several centuries of ignoring each other, these two worlds are finally coming together to show that natural and historical heritage can become allies! Over the course of four seasons, this prestigious documentary collection revisits the great French heritage sites from the perspective of the wildlife that inhabits them, offering an unusual look at these mythical sites, with fur, feathers or scales.

A stunning series that takes you along the most beautiful & vast corridor of life in the Rockies. Discover a revolutionary conservation initiative to preserve the ”iconic four”: bison, grizzly, caribou and wolf.

In 1872, Yellowstone National Park was created. It was the first natural park in the world. Today, as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of this park in 2022, we must once again turn our eyes to this part of the world to observe the deployment of a revolutionary initiative, a new concept of nature conservation, the Yellowstone to Yukon corridor, which preserves the heritage of Yellowstone Park.
Through the success stories of four emblematic animals (bison, grizzly, woodland caribou, wolf), we follow this immense 2000 mile corridor of life through the four episodes of this series and discover how this corridor is working to preserve the Rocky Mountain  ecosystem, in close collaboration with Canadian Indian and First Nations tribes.

Chameleons' way of life, a masterpiece of adaptation to nature, unknown and rarely filmed. In Madagascar, the perfect reptile’s home-island, discover their incredible abilities: sleeping techniques, dancing, camouflage, 340° peripheral vision, catapult tongue, seduction, fluorescence... 

The first aim of this film is to shed new light on these unique reptiles, on their anatomy, which remains a masterpiece of adaptation, very different from other reptiles, on their private life, which is as violent as it is quirky, and on certain little-known behaviors and performances, rarely filmed in the wild.

Follow the footsteps of an international mission developing groundbreaking solutions to save the Great Barrier Reef and its 9,000 unique species from destruction.

These species interact with the coral to form a complex and delicate ecosystem dependent on each other for survival. Yet today the coral—and therefore all the organisms that depend on it—is gravely at risk. In a visually stunning series of 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.

An immersion in the heart of the mountain wildlife. Each episode follows an animal living in a specific landscape’s altitude: the wild cat, the bear and the eagle, from the lowest to the top! 

Discover wildlife filming behind the scenes and find out that more often than not, animals are much more cunning than men. Unfortunately, this lush world is still not very accessible – the animals fear the presence of man in this emblematic massif. To discover them, you have to investigate, find clues, follow tracks and be very patient before you finally get the chance to see them.
Luckily, the journey proves to be just as exciting as the objective: chance upon a mountain-size game of hide-and-seek where man must understand nature and tame it in order to discover its secrets.
 
Also available : 3x43' and 52'

Out-of-competition Selection Green Screen Festival 2022, Official Selection Le Grand Bivouac Festival 2022, Wildlife Vaasa International Nature Film Festival 2022 & The Wildlife Conservation Film Festival 2022

The southern east French coastline’s ecosystem was one of the earliest to be affected by climate change. The Mediterranean is warming up at a rate 20% higher than the rest of the world and the effects are already strongly affecting this very special fauna and flora. How does this unique ecosystem, composed of native and rare species, deploy the utmost ingenuity to try to adapt to an increasingly difficult environment?

In this spectacular and fragile semi-desert environment, episodes of underwater heat waves have recently occurred. On land as well as in the sea, native organisms are strongly challenged by plants or fish coming from warmer or more arid latitudes. Terrible viruses and bacteria dormant in the water are awakened and proliferate thanks to the heat. In this culture broth, some organisms have already been decimated. Others show an unsuspected capacity of adaptation... Let's discover these fighters of global warming, thanks to this 4K journey in the magnificent threatened site of the Calanques.

You have always thought that fish were mute, amnesiac, or insensitive to pain? Well you’re wrong. Scientists are discovering that fish have astonishing cognitive abilities, a hectic social life, and even emotions. What if, fish were not so stupid after all? An investigation in the heart of the sea… 

There is the land and the sea, as there are men and fish. Two worlds, which seem unable to communicate and understand each other. We treat these animals in a way that would seem outrageous if they were cats, baby seals or pandas. However, in 2019, some fish have joined the VIP circle of species capable of passing an age-old intelligence test: recognizing themselves in a mirror. Thus, it is now known that fish have self-awareness like humans, chimpanzees or dolphins. Fish are full of surprises: we discover that they are melomaniacs, like tickling or can have depression.

Beneath the oceans’ surface, thousands of volcanoes have yet to be discovered or explored. Mount La Pérouse is one of these sleeping giants, off the coast of Reunion Island. It is a genuine oasis of life that could be sheltering sprawling coral reefs.

The scientific expedition “La Pérouse” has made it its goal to reveal the sunken haven's secrets. This geological anomaly is only known to a few    Réunionese longline fishers who regularly enjoy miraculous catches there. But as for oceanographers, they still consider the area to be a true “terra incognita”, a mystery to solve. To date, no diver has ever approached it.
What kind of species lives there and at what depth?  What predators feed there? Are there any rare, or even unknown, fish? To what birds and marine mammals is it home?
Underwater GPS, photogrammetry, environmental DNA, 3D cartography, with the help of the most modern scientific techniques, all will be revealed about one of the last virgin territories on Earth, located in the French economic zone. Embark on an unprecedented human and scientific adventure.

Hernin and Marcellin Abong are two Vanuatu twin brothers with very different backgrounds: one has become the “Very Great Chief” of his tribe, while the other is an ethno-archaeologist. 

Their culture is slowly but surely disappearing forever. To keep a record of it, they both delve into the most remote parts of Vanuatu in search of the customs and rites of their people. On foot and by canoe, their journey takes them to grandiose and isolated territories, to discover spectacular and unknown rituals, even for them.

In the heart of the Amazon forest, hides a strange animal we do not expect to see thousands of kilometers from the ocean: the Amazon Pink River Dolphin. Is it a simple descendant of the marine species, or a distinct species that has survived through the ages and adapted to this lush environment?

Where does it come from? How has this animal come to acclimate to this tropical rainforest environment? What links do they have to marine dolphins?
Unknown for a long time, the pink dolphin remains a mystery to the scientists struggling to reconstruct its evolutionary course. Now thanks to a recent discovery, scientists are finally able to understand more about the mystery of the pink dolphin and its origins.
Join them on this remarkable scientific adventure...

There is no standard picture that describes the largest and most varied country in Western Europe in terms of wildlife and landscapes. Discover a one-of-a-kind variety of natural wonders populated with  small creatures with stunning never-before-seen images.

The North-West: from Paris along the wild coast, the romantic Normandy and the picturesque Loire
The South-West: the garden of France along the Atlantic Ocean, the wine regions of Burgundy and Bordeaux
The South: where mountains meet the Mediterranean Sea and the blooming Provence
The East: mountain area
 
Anyone who looks closely will discover something unusual, something never seen before. Especially, some small creatures often show behaviors nobody knows about, like these bioluminescent worms or catfish that hunt pigeons. France is one of those countries you think you know, but when you explore it, it can still surprise you!