Vivant parmi les vivants

I am particularly happy to share this film because it belongs to a category that is very dear to me: that of a documentary driven by a genuine ambition to convey worldviews, in which the cinematic dispositif also becomes a tool—since the aim is not only to reflect on the living, but to become sensitive through images and to allow oneself to be transformed by them.

Among the living beings that populate the film are the wild horses of Lozère, birds, insects, as well as Vinciane Despret and Baptiste Morizot. The film’s gesture is remarkable: it does not merely grant us access to their ideas, but to their listening, their hesitations, and their way of searching. And that is precious.

Moreover, Sylvère Petit shows great delicacy in pulling us out of the “lecture” mode and placing his camera… at dog height! Yes, that dog who listens, who may grow bored, who plays, who falls asleep while humans talk. This choice of viewpoint, far from being anecdotal, invites us to unlearn our perceptual certainties and to bring into the frame what we have learned no longer to see: the living.

This film pays tribute to philosophical and ontological perspectives that are reshaping our relationship to nature today. The problem is not that we are cut off from the living, but that we are cut off from the very fact of that separation. Adopting the dog’s gaze may already be a way to begin to step outside it.

Sylvie Lapointe
Filmmaker and project manager for Tënk