THE SPIRIT OF THE EARTH
“It is because the out-of-control and death are now the order of the day that everything is still to come: the creativity of human beings who are trying to recompose their world.” With these words from her book Les Âmes sauvages, Nastassja Martin invites us to invent ways of living that reconfigure our relationship to life, our ties with others and with nature. While this involves creativity and invention, it also means dropping the paradigm of economic exploitation – be it through farming, tourism or industry – that is depleting resources and destroying the living.
Since 2019 the Popular Front(s) has focused precisely on the way that we inhabit the world, convinced that cinema and the festival together are a possible space for our commitment and our reflection. The films screened this year compel us to face up to the catastrophe of a civilisation that is precipitating human and non-human forms of life towards the abyss. They also enable us to envisage different ways of conceiving our relationship to life, our ties with others and the earth.
Siding with the spirit of the earth means not only questioning what enables a living environment to live a good life, but also what is threatening it, and makes life difficult. It means considering nature as a living entity that man is part of. It is on these issues and the way of rendering this belonging that we will be welcoming the filmmakers to share their experience at a round table on Saturday 1 April, to close this programme.