Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Green Films

Earth from Above - Yann Arthus-Bertrand

I was reading this interview with Yann Arthus-Bertrand by the Guardian... Now I have to say that he is my hero! I love his work. I love his beautiful aerial landscape photos taken all around the world (turned into a book "Earth from Above" ), his film "Home"  and all the messages he tries to convey about the world, ecology, sustainability, etc. It's timely that I come across this interview with him, given the situation in Japan now and all those recent worldwide disasters... :(

You should have a read of the article.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand isn't just an aerial photographer: he's on a mission to save mankind by teaching us to love our beautiful planet. To many, he is France's answer to Al Gore, but why do some think he's an "enormous idiot"? ...

Anyway, as I was reading it, it occurred to me that did the interview in English and his English isn't quite perfect and they left his mistakes in which I thought was rather 'cute' and authentic. (not so 'cute' about leaving his wife though ;) ) Examples:

"Together we have made a safari park (which lasted?) for 10 years"

"I quit left my first wife, and went to live with my second wife and her two children in Kenya"...

I love this quote. The reporter asks, "How, I wonder, does he now measure his success, beyond sales figures?" and he says:

"I don't think it is necessary to measure it exactly," he says. "You want to spread the message. To have success in your professional life is not so hard. To succeed as a man is more difficult. What I am doing now helps me to succeed as a man."

Watch Home on YouTube

Buy the French version of Earth from Above (La Terre Vue du Ciel)


And on the same topic, recently I wanted to go to the Festival du Film Vert (Green Film Festival) in Geneva (and all over Switzerland), but couldn't make it. It was a Film Festival screening films with an environmental/sustainability message. I wish I could've seen them all as this topic interests me a great deal.


Films with a Green Message
You could also use them for French listening practice ;)


A la découverte de l'énergie (Discovery of energy)



Blue gold - world water war



Chomsky et compagnie (Chomsky and company)



Déchets, le cauchemar du nucléaire (The nightmare of nuclear waste)



Dive! (Dumpster Diving)


Dive! Trailer from Compeller on Vimeo.

Du poison dans nos vêtements (From the Poison in our clothes)


Du poison dans nos vêtements 1/3 by Wakeup-

Etre éco-citoyen (Be an eco-citizen)

(can't find video for this)

Food Inc.



Fresh



Hold up sur l'écologie (Hold up on ecology)



Home

(as above)

I bought a rainforest



Il était une fois... notre Terre (Once upon a time... our land)



Jura, instants volés (Jura, stolen moments)



La fin de la pauvreté ? (The end of poverty?)



La vie sauvage en Suisse (Life in the wild in Switzerland)


Trailer WILDNIS SCHWEIZ I LA VIE SAUVAGE EN SUISSE from Roger Maeder on Vimeo.

Le pouvoir de la communauté (The Power of Community)



Main basse sur le riz (Take over of rice)



Mister Carbone



Notre poison quotidien (Our daily poison)



Pig Business



RAS nucléaire: rien à signaler (RAS Nuclear: Nothing to Signal)



Solutions locales pour un désordre global (Local solutions for a global disaster)



Sous les pavés, la terre (Under the pavers, the earth)



Taking root, the vision of Wangari Maathai



Tchernobyl, une histoire naturelle? (Tchernobyl, a natural story?)



Un avenir? A quel prix... (A future? At what price...)



Water makes money

I also remember this book Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker, from my childhood. The book is composed of 3D collages where all the images are made from objects found in the natural environment. It won numerous awards. Even back then in the 1980s-early 1990s the "saving the environment" message was out there.

It really angers me when people don't think about these issues which affect all of us and just go about their daily lives ignoring the harsh realities of our future, consuming and consuming, making 'progress' and polluting... ugh. It's just too depressing really.