ARTE Distribution

What is the price of our addiction to sugar? For five centuries, it has been a driving force in our history. The pleasure of its sweetness and the profits from its trade have justified the worst: conquest, colonization, slavery, and forced labor. Across Europe, the Caribbean, the Americas, and the Indian Ocean, in search of the sources of our addiction, the first episode of this historical investigation reveals the dark side of “white gold,” from Christopher Columbus to the dawn of the 20th century.

The history of the conquest of the Americas cannot be told without mentioning sugar, and the history of sugar cannot be told without mentioning the triangular trade and colonization. A luxury product that became a staple of the European diet, sugar is a globalized and destructive success story. From the beginning of colonization in the 15th century to the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century,
it contributed to Europe's prosperity at the cost of enslaving the indigenous peoples of the Americas, then, on a massive scale,
men and women from Africa. The successive abolitions of slavery in the 19th century weakened this highly profitable sugar economy. But it held on, and even invented new models of servitude. Since its origins, the sugar economy has constantly reinvented itself. At the end of the 19th century, it was booming and about to reach its peak. Its fate was now linked to that of the new power, the United States.

In the shimmering waters of the Great Barrier Reef, the tiger shark reigns supreme. A legendary predator and essential to the balance of the reefs, it fascinates as much as it frightens. Australian scientists decipher its behavior, its migrations, and the complex interactions that bind it to humans. Thanks to new technologies and an unprecedented approach to cohabitation, this film unveils the mysteries of a giant of the seas, the silent guardian of a fragile world.

The benefits of reef sharks to coral are immense and still largely unknown to the public. In fact, sharks protect coral reefs by hunting mid-level predators like groupers and barracudas (not the small fish that clean algae or help coral spread). By controlling these predators, they indirectly safeguard the grazers that keep coral healthy. Thus, sharks act as protectors of coral’s essential cleaners so much so that, when threatened, these small fish emit distress calls to summon sharks for help.
 
Yet today, some shark species have never been observed alive, and for others, we know nothing about their prey or hunting methods. Without this knowledge, it’s impossible to grasp the critical role they play in reef ecosystems.
 
This "Shark Mission" has two clear objectives:
 
- Uncover the importance of completely unknown shark species to reef health.
 
- Field-test simple, scalable coastal protection systems that can be easily adapted to other coral barriers worldwide — ensuring shark populations remain large enough to curb the unchecked proliferation of mid-level predators, which, if left unchecked, will gradually destroy the reefs.

From the mangroves of Queensland to the lagoons of the Great Barrier Reef, saltwater crocodiles reign over an empire of water and mud. Survivors from the age of the dinosaurs, these giant predators live between land and ocean, guardians of a fragile balance. Scientists track their movements and decipher the secrets of a fascinating animal, as feared as it is essential to the health of the coastline.

From the mangroves of Queensland to the lagoons of the Great Barrier Reef, saltwater crocodiles reign over an empire of water and mud. Survivors from the age of the dinosaurs, these giant predators live between land and ocean, guardians of a fragile balance. Scientists track their movements and decipher the secrets of a fascinating animal, as feared as it is essential to the health of the coastline.

In the heart of the Great Barrier Reef, snakes, cone snails, stonefish, and jellyfish wield a formidable weapon: venom. Used for hunting or defense, this poison can kill... but it can also heal. Australian biologists reveal how these extreme toxins are inspiring the medicine of tomorrow. Between high-risk dives and scientific discoveries, the film explores the fragile boundary between fear and fascination, death and healing.

In the heart of the Great Barrier Reef, snakes, cone snails, stonefish, and jellyfish wield a formidable weapon: venom. Used for hunting or defense, this poison can kill... but it can also heal. Australian biologists reveal how these extreme toxins are inspiring the medicine of tomorrow. Between high-risk dives and scientific discoveries, the film explores the fragile boundary between fear and fascination, death and healing.

Global ocean warming is disrupting the delicate balance of the Great Barrier Reef. While some creatures, like coral, are disappearing at a record pace, others are suddenly thriving. This is bad news for the reef (and for humans) because these creatures are commonly known as jellyfish.

Jellyfish inhabit oceans worldwide, but the Great Barrier Reef is home to some of the deadliest: the box jellyfish, the Irukandji, and the Portuguese man o’ war. And where the world’s most venomous jellyfish thrive, so does one of the leading experts on them: Jamie Seymour.

Jamie is a pioneering researcher at the Centre for Molecular Therapeutics at James Cook University. The center studies and tests new drugs derived from the Great Barrier Reef’s vast biodiversity, including the incredibly potent venoms of jellyfish. While most of Jamie’s colleagues work behind lab microscopes, he isn’t afraid to dive straight into the heart of the reef to collect raw (and sometimes deadly) specimens.

On one side, an electro-disco sextet with sophisticated melodies, on the other, a UFO of organic architecture overlooking the Bay of Cannes: L'Impératrice takes over the Palais Bulles for a bewitching retro-futuristic concert.
 

The group L'Impératrice and its singer Flore Benguigui could not have dreamed of a more beautiful setting to mark the release of their third album, Pulsar, on June 7: designed by Hungarian “habitologist” Antti Lovag in the 1970s, then bought by fashion designer Pierre Cardin, the Palais Bulles, whose thousand portholes overlook the Mediterranean, forms the ideal backdrop for a cosmic concert. Wandering through the villa's curvaceous spaces, this musical film unfolds the story of a day, from breakfast to bedtime under a starry sky, between everyday sketches punctuated by the group's swaying melodies and live sessions featuring classic hits (“Agitations tropicales”, “Voodoo?”, “Anomalie bleue”...) and danceable new compositions. A retro journey of joyful, refined energy.

While the Austrian Mozart (1756-1791) died at the age of 35, almost the same age as Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793), Hyacinthe Jadin (1776-1800) from Versailles died at the age of 24, succumbing to tuberculosis. A piano virtuoso, he left behind numerous sonatas and three concertos, fleeting testimonies to his immense talent, which had barely blossomed, and to a magnificent pre-Romanticism. Here he is confronted with the works of his elder Mozart, united in the precocity of their works and their deaths.
The jewel of the rising generation of French keyboard players, Justin Taylor connects these works through the dazzling brilliance they still bring today, that extraordinary freshness of youth and inspiration!

Program
First Part: 40 minutes
Hyacinthe Jadin (1776–1800)
First Quartet in B-flat Major
I. Largo
Second Concerto for Fortepiano, with accompaniment of two violins, viola, bass, flute, oboe, bassoons, and horns
I. Allegro maestoso
II. Siciliano Larghetto
III. Rondo
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Fantasy in D minor, K. 397
Hyacinthe Jadin
Third Concerto for Fortepiano, with accompaniment of two violins, viola, bass, two flutes, two bassoons, and two horns
III. Rondo Allegro
Intermission
Second Part: 30 minutes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Concerto in G Major, K. 453
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Allegretto

Life for sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia has become a living hell. But the Tunisian authorities do not want journalist reporting on their situation.

In late April 2025, fighting between militias and government security forces in Druze areas of Damascus has brought violence back to the streets of Syria with around 100 dead. The Druze minority feels uneasy about their place in the new post-Assad Syria.