Science and Cinema – The Figures of the River and the Stream

Sat. March 23

2:00 PM • Slow Returns by Phillip Cartelli | United States | 2021 | 1h10 + Discussion | Fiction
From one end to the other, Slow Return traces the course of the Rhône River. Between the fishermen of Salin-de-Giraud and the Rhône Glacier, Philip Cartelli encounters various people and explores the relationship the population has with the river. By examining the legacies of dependence and exploitation embedded in these landscapes, the film creates a sensitive archaeology of the place.

Followed by a discussion moderated by Camille de Toledo, writer and artist associated with the Institute for Advanced Study in Nantes, with the Council of Witnesses.

5:00 PM • Free Session

Discover the public hearing The Work of Water and Rivers: From Early Civilizations to Mega-Reservoirs by Giacomo Parrinello, Senior Lecturer at Sciences Po Paris, specialist in the history of water, energy, and the Anthropocene. This 1h20 conference explores soil work, subsoil work, animal labor, and photosynthesis. The earth’s and nature’s forces are depleted through constant exploitation. For this reason, we must fight for them, to recognize their powers. Following the first key moment that took place at Le Lieu Unique on November 18, this hearing will explore both historical (the transformation and management of watersheds) and contemporary (the exploitation of water masses: dams, power plants, intensive agriculture) perspectives.

The hearing will be preceded by the short film La Cantate delle Marane by Cécilia Mangini | Italy | 1961 | 10 min | Short Film
On a hot summer day, a group of boys from the suburbs of Rome play and laugh in one of the many rivers surrounding the city. The camera scrutinizes them, gets close, reveals their gestures and glances, and envelops them in a kind of visual dance, while the commentary – entrusted to the poetic sensitivity of Pier Paolo Pasolini – tells the stories, desires, dreams, and future.

8:00 PM • The River by Dominique Marchais | France | 1961 | 1h44 + Discussion | Documentary
Between the Pyrenees and the Atlantic flow powerful rivers called les gaves. Corn fields thirst for them, and dams block the salmon's passage. Human activity disrupts the water cycle and the river's biodiversity. Men and women gaze curiously and lovingly at this fascinating world made of both beauty and disaster.

Followed by a discussion moderated by Jérôme Baron, artistic director of the Festival des Trois Continents.

Sun. March 24

2:00 PM • Los Silencios by Beatriz Seigner | Brazil, Colombia, France | 2018 | 1h28 + Discussion | Drama
Nuria, 12 years old, Fabio, 9, and their mother arrive on a small island in the middle of the Amazon, at the borders of Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. They have fled the Colombian armed conflict, in which their father disappeared. Isolation, the precariousness of an existence partly built on a submergible island—how can they find, beyond their suffering and mourning, the possibility of rebuilding their lives?

Followed by a discussion moderated by Camille de Toledo, writer and artist associated with the Institute for Advanced Study in Nantes.

5:00 PM • Towards the Sea by Annick Leroy | France | 1999 | 1h28 + Discussion | Documentary
Towards the Sea is a journey through Europe along the Danube, a passage beyond political borders, a path connecting the West and the East, an epic towards the sea. The Danube juxtaposes the timeless nature of its course with the temporal lives of its characters. This film reflects the small and great stories of life across the diverse countries and populations crossed by this river.

Followed by a discussion moderated by Camille de Chenay, director of fiction and documentaries.

8:00 PM • Still Life by Jia Zhangke | China | 2006 | 1h48 + Discussion | Fiction
The films of Jia Zhangke, one after the other, and like few others at the turn of the 1990s and 2000s, have prefigured, in accelerated speeds and unimaginable proportions, the changes that turned contemporary China into an event in itself. Still Life focuses on metamorphosis, taking as its backdrop the consequences of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River for the lives of ordinary Chinese people.

Followed by a discussion moderated by Jérôme Baron, artistic director of the Festival des Trois Continents.