Baobabs between Land and Sea

Since boyhood, nature, trees, and the forest have fascinated me. I first encountered baobabs in 1979 during a stay in Senegal with my parents. Even though I was not yet ten-years old, I fell under their spell. But it was another thirty years before I was to meet them again in Madagascar. They are powerful beings, mysterious, exciting. So exciting that six years ago I settled here on the Red Island to study them.

The island of Madagascar is a great source of inspiration for filmmakers and photographers. Nature and landscapes are exceptional. Cultural diversity is also remarkable. I have photographed the island, its people and its nature for many years. With Baobab between Earth and Sea, I drew up a new objective: to share one of our expeditions in a documentary film as my first realization. The film chronicles a trip in June 2013 between the towns of Morondava and Tulear in Madagascar's southwest. We journeyed for twenty-two days by pirogue to explore four hundred kilometers of rugged coastline. The film reveals our findings, our encounters and our scientific results. The narrative is intimately related to travel. Content and form change the rhythm of encounters and discoveries in an attempt to place the spectator at the heart of the adventure. The film is self-produced with a micro budget of around 7000 euros.

I worked alone for shooting, sound and editing. I had a clear idea about the movie I wanted to produce, and the best way to achieve this was to do it myself. Not easy! Especially when one is constrained by the time-consuming exigencies of a researcher. One has also to learn many techniques and assemble everything for the overall production. It’s fabulous! We spent a long time, with taking into account building such a story that gradually born through drifting experience. The most difficult was to cut the umbilical cord and let the film live. At least two hundred hours of work anyway!

For music, I had the good fortune to work with an exceptional Malagasy guitarist D'Gary. Initially, D'Gary was to advise me in the selection of musical illustrations. After viewing the film, he offered to participate in the studio and record some songs. A great chance! The musician is a talented jazz pianist Thuryn Mitchell, who lends his powerful voice, adding a measured and sensitive quality to the commentary. Then a wonderful collaboration with Laurence Guennec who provided the visuals for the movie poster, and also with Jean-Michel who provided brilliantly calibrated images. For my next projects, I'd like to work further with this team.

A few months after its release, the film was selected and awarded by many festivals in the field of the environment but also by general festivals. It has been selected by Green Screen, Germany; the Innsbruck Nature Film Festival in Austria; CMS Vatavaran in New Delhi; Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival in Indonesia; the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in New York and the Wildlife Film Festival, Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The film has won thirteen awards including a special jury prize at Matsalu International Nature Film Festival in Estonia, the first prize at the Sondrio International Documentary Film Festival on Parks in Italy, two awards at the International Peace & Film Festival in Orlando and the Viva grand prize film Festival in Sarajevo. I am of course delighted and surprised by such success. I think the outstanding subject of the film has much to offer. In the coming months, the documentary is competing in twenty leading festivals including the International Green Documentary Film Festival in Russia, the Cape Town Eco Film in the South Africa Festival and the famous Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's capital in Washington which is the most important film festival on the theme of the environment in the world!

I am currently preparing a second film on the baobab trees of the north of the island of Madagascar and in particular on the two rarest species Adansonia suarezensis and A. perrieri! The second documentary is ‘in the can’. I shot the images in November 2014 during a second expedition by canoe between the cities of Mahajanga and Diego Suarez. In the coming years, I would like to visit the last portion of west coast that we have not yet explored, between Morondava and Mahajanga. I also plan to fly a para-motor tandem and film extremely remote and inaccessible baobab forests.