Arte Distribution

In April 2019, the world held its breath as Notre Dame, the most wondrous of cathedrals, almost burnt to the ground and with her 800 years of history.
Our film tells Notre Dame’s story, starting in the Middle Ages, when master builders reinvented the art of construction to erect Gothic cathedrals. 

Eight centuries of passion, talent, blood, destruction and rebirth, during which time the cathedral witnessed some tumultuous moments in the history of France, from the most glorious to its darkest periods. A gripping docu drama that uses 3D animation combined with exclusive footage and interviews of historians, writers (such as Ken Follet, The Pilars of the Earth) scientists, architects and engineers.

In the Middle Ages, Paris gave birth to the world’s most famous stone edifice: Notre-Dame. 7 centuries have passed since its construction. Watch history come alive thanks to 3D reproduction of the monument. A dramatic tale of ambition, talent, destruction, blood and rebirth. 

We tell the incredible 700 year saga of the builders and Church’s Men who invented modern day architecture in France and throughout Europe. Driven by the quest for perfect harmony, they created one of the most emblematic sacred monuments known today. 3D animation and documentary will come together in a history film to give an accurate representation of this great historical fresco. Indeed, the fictional tale, entirely in animation sequences will be the backbone of the film, around which the documentary scenes will be built to provide specific historic and technical explanations.
 

In April 2019, the world held its breath as Notre Dame, the most wondrous of cathedrals, almost burnt to the ground and with her 800 years of history.
Our film tells Notre Dame’s story, starting in the Middle Ages, when master builders reinvented the art of construction to erect Gothic cathedrals. 
 

Eight centuries of passion, talent, blood, destruction and rebirth, during which time the cathedral witnessed some tumultuous moments in the history of France, from the most glorious to its darkest periods. A gripping docu drama that uses 3D animation combined with exclusive footage and interviews of historians, writers (such as Ken Follet, The Pilars of the Earth) scientists, architects and engineers.
 

*Also available: NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS: THE AGE OF THE BUILDERS*

In April 2019, the world held its breath as Notre Dame, the most wondrous of cathedrals, almost burnt to the ground and with her 800 years of history.
Our film tells Notre Dame’s story, starting in the Middle Ages, when master builders reinvented the art of construction to erect Gothic cathedrals. 

Eight centuries of passion, talent, blood, destruction and rebirth, during which time the cathedral witnessed some tumultuous moments in the history of France, from the most glorious to its darkest periods. A gripping docu drama that uses 3D animation combined with exclusive footage and interviews of historians, writers (such as Ken Follet, The Pilars of the Earth) scientists, architects and engineers.

In April 2019, the world held its breath as Notre Dame, the most wondrous of cathedrals, almost burnt to the ground and with her 800 years of history.
Our film tells Notre Dame’s story, starting in the Middle Ages, when master builders reinvented the art of construction to erect Gothic cathedrals. 

Eight centuries of passion, talent, blood, destruction and rebirth, during which time the cathedral witnessed some tumultuous moments in the history of France, from the most glorious to its darkest periods. A gripping docu drama that uses 3D animation combined with exclusive footage and interviews of historians, writers (such as Ken Follet, The Pilars of the Earth) scientists, architects and engineers

It was in the 12th century that the foundation stone of Notre-Dame was laid in Paris, under the impetus of Bishop Maurice de Sully. Thus began a gigantic construction site: stonemasons, blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, all the guilds were involved in building the monument. 

Motivated by faith, driven by the ambition to build a cathedral whose dimensions would outshine even their wildest dreams, the builders of Notre-Dame invented a new architectural style that soon inspired the entire West: ars francigenum, or French art.

In the 13th century, when the construction of Notre-Dame de Paris had just been completed, its builders had to push themselves even further: the new cathedrals that were springing up all over Europe offered them new grandiose technical challenges and competition. 

Hundreds of men and women put in countless hours to embellish Notre-Dame de Paris and enable this jewel of stone, wood, iron and glass to stand the test of time. For her trials were not over: she would have to face wars, revolutions and, above all, the ravages of time. In the 19th century, two men in particular have made the cathedral more relevant than ever: Victor Hugo magnified it in his novel Notre-Dame de Paris, and the architect Viollet-Le-Duc thoroughly restored it. His passion for the cathedral brought it back to life. Thanks to him, Notre-Dame became the beating heart of Paris, once again.

After the success of Season 1, this season 2 presents new dates: the trial of Socrates, the foundation of Rome, the death of Louis IX, the fall of Constantinople and many more... The series is conceived to potentially become a key reference in teaching history.

A date is a snapshot, a flashback which requires crossing disciplines such as history, art, archeology and literature for a vibrant and sensitive reading of the past. It arouses our childhood curiosity, recalling when we dreamed of a time machine.

 
 
List of dates:
-399, The Trial of Socrates
1270, Death of Louis IX in Carthage, Birth of Saint Louis in Carthage
1610, The Assassination of Henry IV
October 1860, The Sacking of Peking
1776, The American Independence
- 753: The foundation of Rome
1453, The Fall of Constantinople
315-317 and 1440, The Donation of Constantine
751, The Battle of Talas and the Advent of the Tang Dynasty
1848, The Spring of Nations
 

This series tells world history through a few major dates, revisited through the prism of memory. Driven by the accessible and passionate delivery of historian Patrick Boucheron, history comes to life under our eyes with bold and entertaining graphics.

A date is a snapshot, a flashback which requires crossing disciplines such as history, art, archeology and literature for a vibrant and sensitive reading of the past. It arouses our childhood curiosity, recalling when we dreamed of a time machine.
The series is conceived to potentially become a key reference in teaching history.
 
List of dates:
323 BC: Death of Alexander the Great
33 AD: Crucifixion of Jesus
24 August 79: Destruction of Pompeii
24 September 622: The Hegira
1347: The Black Death
1431: Fall of the Angkor Empire 
1492: The New World 
20 June 1789: The Birth of the French Republic
6 August 1945: Hiroshima
11 February 1990: Liberation of Nelson Mandela
 
ALL EPISODES ARE AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH.

For 60 years, Fidel Castro was a thorn in the side of USA and a symbol of anti-imperialist struggle. Castro and his compatriots played a prominent role on the international stage and contributed to changing the world. 
 

Castro and his team changed the world in a way that was inconceivable for a mere Island in the Caribbean. By sending troops to fight alongside left-wing revolutionaries in Africa, and using soft power to influence other regimes in Latin America, Cuba–in Fidel’s words–"was a small country which behaved as if it had the resources of a great power". Moreover, he managed to get away with it for more than three decades.
For the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution in 2019, with views from every side: the Cubans, the Russians, the Americans, and the rest, this film reveals the history of Cuba as never before.
Award-winning producers Temps Noir (Cuba, an African Odyssey, Africa, history of a continent) and Brook Lapping (Obama Years, Putin, Russia and the West, Iran and the West) put their talents together to produce a fascinating insider account of 60 years of Cuba’s history and its place in the world.
 
 

From the 1880’s to today, discover the incredible saga of global drug trafficking, heroin, cocaine, opium, cannabis and other synthetic drugs. In a in depth chronological investigation, global geo politics and power struggles between states will be analyzed through an original angle.

There are few commodities as global as drugs. How this trade influenced relations between states, global financial interests, secret diplomacies, secret special forces and mafias, on all continents over a century in a half.

From a founding text by Karl Marx, thinkers in economics and social sciences from around the world are invited to reflect on the origins of the terms that structure our lives. Our entire capitalist system is dissected to open up the discussions on the world of tomorrow.

Understanding our everyday lives, by looking at what is happening inside the contemporary economic engine.