Private Project

There Once was A Puffin

Crafted from archive footage, There Once was A Puffin explores one aspect of the relationship between the Atlantic puffin and the European coastal populations, who consume it. Between traditional hunting, declining colonies and climate change.

  • La Fille Renne
    Director
  • La Fille Renne
    Writer
  • La Fille Renne
    Producer
  • Théo Perek
    Music
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    There Once was A Puffin
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 11 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 23, 2026
  • Production Budget:
    0 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    France
  • Language:
    French
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - La Fille Renne

La Fille Renne (they/them) is a filmmaker, photographer and tattoo artist from Lyon. Trained in ecology and zooarchaeology, their work explores human–animal relationships in polar and northern coastal cultures as well as queerness and sexuality. They are passionate about analog photography, ecology, osteology, the Arctic and intimacy.

Their short films, made solo or in a collective with Laure Giappiconi and Elisa Monteil, have been screened at numerous festivals around the world, including Sundance, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Norwegian Short Film Festival, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, London Short Film Festival, Go Short, Les Filministes, RIDM, Leiden Shorts, Côté Court, Lago Film Fest, etc.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

There Once was A Puffin was crafted in response to a call for political films on the theme of ‘mémoire(s) de lutte’ (‘memory-ies of struggle’).
Between January and March 2026, we witnessed more than 45,000 Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arctica) washing up on the French coast following exceptional winter storms. Many breeding adults died, which is very worrying for the renewal of colonies.
Nourished by my training in ecology and zooarchaeology, I therefore wanted to work on this species, which I am fond of, and on one aspect of the ambivalent relationship we have maintained with it for a millennium in Europe: its hunting and consumption (fowling).

These little-known practices are condemned in my French culture, which is predominantly speciesist. Yet if the puffin is in danger of extinction, it's not because Icelanders and Faroese eat it. It's mainly due to global warming and overfishing, and so to our collective failure to care for the ecosystems we occupy. As a particularly sensitive species, its state of health is also a good indicator of the health of the ecosystems in which it lives.
In this film, I explore my own ambivalence. I’m moved by the disappearance of a species, but I’m also moved by the disappearance of ancient food traditions, developed in a context of subsistence, which nevertheless contribute to the exploitation of that species.
Globalisation and capitalist logic are impoverishing both the environment and cultural heritage. For me, it's therefore essential to document not only living species in decline, but also traditions linked to an economic, cultural and environmental context that younger generations may no longer be familiar with.

I worked with archive footage from Scotland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, some of which are over a century old. This enabled me to compile the rare footage of puffin hunting available online, which was filmed before the digital age. Documents relating to these traditions are scarce, even more so when it comes to Brittany and Scotland. I made this film with a focus on recycling, but also as a tribute to these images and for archiving purposes. Their size, sometimes due to poor-quality digitalisation, dictated the film’s format, which thus offers two small windows through which to observe this subject and these landscapes.
Théo Perek’s richly textured soundtrack perfectly completes the beauty of the shots and the atmospheres they evoke.