ARTE Distribution

In South Korea, the Gameunsa Temple Site is located far from the hustle and bustle of Seoul. Three Buddhist nuns live there and are determined to preserve the culinary traditions of this 1,700-year-old building.

In Asia, the charismatic abbess WooKwan Sunim is considered one of the best cooks in the world. The temple being located in the mountains, she cooks with what nature offers, starting with wild plants.  The result is a vital energy that benefits both the nuns of the Gameunsa Temple Site and the faithful.

In the most Asian part of India lies a singular state with a Christian majority, Nagaland. Here in the commune of Kikruma, a village situated at an altitude of 1,600 meters, every drop of water is a treasure. In these lush lands, life depends on an ephemeral phenomenon: the monsoon rains that only sweep the region between June and October.

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. 

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?

Fire dancing in Papua New Guinea or climbing to the top of the Ethiopian cliffs to introduce one’s child to God: this series reveals how some people today still practice rituals that structure their lives and become, beyond a simple social bond, a structuring force and a source of culture.

In societies that struggle to find their bearings, rituals - whether pagan or mysterious - are of particular importance when people are confronted with the unknown, illness, death, not knowing what tomorrow is made of. Rituals help organise chaos, warding off our fears and bringing to light the meaning in our lives.
Anthropologist, Anne-Sylvie Malbrancke, helps us understand and experience these moments with those who practice them.​

The history of man, told through uncharted sites, traditions and peoples, with, as a guide, the talented 34-year old paleopathologist Philippe Charlier, who is also a historian, anthropologist and forensic pathologist.

Via the scientific studies he has either taken part in or knows everything about, Philippe Charlier takes us on a world tour of secret splendours, all of which reveal a little more about the history of peoples, via their ways of life, their culture, their rites and their religion. Amidst breathtaking landscapes, we discover mythical places and traditions that are shrouded in mystery.
 

Mountains, people and stories..

 
A fascinating, menacing, fragile and mysterious world. People live among rocky peaks in freedom, in a natural environment that is sometimes dangerous and isolated. Magnificent landscapes where a population proud of its culture and traditions lives in harmony with nature.
 
Also available as 49x3'.

A remarkable series portraying heritage in a world undergoing profound change.

We travel to the planet’s 34 most beautiful coastal and maritime destinations. On the beaches, coasts and islands of all the world’s continents we discover societies with little-known cultures, in natural environments that are often endangered.
All in 20 minutes.

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.

Nestled in the heart of the Himalayas, the small kingdom of Bhutan has decided to do away with the dictatorship of Gross Domestic Product and economic growth at all costs. A new wealth indicator has now become the country’s gold standard: Gross National Happiness. 

Launched by the country’s fourth King, the “new paradigm” is based on four pillars: protection of the environment; conservation and promotion of Bhutanese culture; good governance; and responsible and sustainable economic development. 

Among the planet's largest deltas, none is as fertile and highly populated as the Mekong Delta in Southern Vietnam. In this wetland area, where people row more than they walk, trade takes place quite naturally on the water. The region is home to some of the most beautiful floating markets in Southeast Asia. The most prominent one is the floating market of Cai Rang. It enables all the delta's farmers to come and sell their fruits and vegetables. Over the years the market has set up its own culture and its own rules. A micro-society that is now faced with economic change and competition from road transport.