Interview with Yann Arthus-Bertrand about his new film HUMAN with enthralling aerial shots and thousands of emotional and thought provoking interviews made around the globe – looking into what it means to be human – and it will make you weep. The screening of Human is part of the autumn 2016 program of the FOTOFABRIKA FESTIVAL in Sofia.

Yann  Arthus-Bertrand, activist, ecologist, journalist, famous photographer and well-known director of the films HOME, PLANET OCEAN, TERRA, HUMAN and he has already started work on his next film WOMAN – a tribute to the overlooked half of humankind. He is a symbol of a new way of thinking, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program.  HUMAN is free of copyrights and is free to be seen on youtube and you can contact his GoodPlanet Association for the organization of a possible screening at your hometown.

 

Milla Tarabanova: What is your goal?

Yann Arthus-Bertrand: Not to die. You know I’m an activist. I think we can raise awareness through cinema. We do the maximum that we can do and we have a lot of nice projects. When you become well-known and you have so many projects… it is always difficult to bring money to a big project, but not as difficult as when you are just beginning. I am able to do things I want, so I do them. And when people say they want to participate, I give my maximum. I’d hate to be retired, so I’m working. I don’t know if it’s work anyway, it’s living. That’s all.

It is a gorgeous film, but when I started thinking about what you are doing, I came to the conclusion that you are either a modern Messiah or a modern Sisyphus.

You know I am a journalist. I am the bridge between what I want to do and the public. I think that a journalist, in fact, is only that – you bring the news, you bring your feeling and after that you give it to the public. When you do cinema, television, write books – I think it is a heavy work. It is not work you take lightly. I want my work to be useful. I think perhaps it is one’s Ego…to want to make your work important but ………..Besides I am not into fashion, I hate advertising and I am not too much in these art things because I am trying to stay simple. To be direct so that everybody can understand my movie. It is not too much of me, in fact, it is too much of the other in my work. And I want to stay like that. Anyway, as an artist you change reality and create your own reality, while I am not trying to change it. I think it is stronger than anything and nothing is more beautiful than reality. You have to be quite modest and full of humility in front of that. There are too much intellectual things and sometimes the artists don’t like me too much because I think you have to stay simple. There are so many things that I cannot believe are happening. Today if you see what is happening in Aleppo, the refugees in the Mediterranean, everything that happens every day, there are so many things to say. I don’t need to say more than that. It is more than enough. And because I am a journalist who covers wildlife with a nature and wildlife background, I like to keep to reality. My work is based on that. The closer I come to the end, I want to go straight to the real things in life. I think it is very important. You know, it is not ridiculous to say you have a mission…, perhaps, you need not use such a strong word, but you can change the world. Everybody can do it. You do what you do and change the world in your way. It is not something special. Everybody can decide that we can improve the world. And I love to improve the world through my work. I don’t want to make pretentious…I am ambitious but I hope in a good way.

What do you want to change?

I want to send a perception. We are much too selfish. You know, I had an old aunt. She was 92 years old, she wasn’t religious and she was sick, but she was always smiling. She never complained. And when I asked her how she can be like that, she said to me:” Yann, it’s so easy. I don’t think too much about myself, I think for the other one.” This is so, so true. Je pense pas trop a moi, je pense que s’autre. It’s so evident that we think too much about ourselves, sometimes more than that. But I think happiness is on its way. Who said: There is no way for happiness, happiness is the way. I think this is very true.

The work that you have been doing is for such a long time. Has it been difficult?

It was easy. I don’t think it was difficult. I have to say I love this movie Human. I love it. I’m not fed up with talking about it. I don’t know if I said that yesterday but at the first screening, it was 7 hours. The whole team was crying because we achieved what we wanted to do. It’s difficult. To bring emotion is the most difficult thing to do.

The aerial shots were magnificent. Your aerial photography is not simple at all.

It’s not something complicated. You fly when it’s beautiful, you click. Well, no…sure, you do have to have the experience.

How did you start?

When I was studying lions in Kenya, I was flying the hotel balloon. That is when I discovered how important aerial photography is. It can show you a completely different perspective from what you see from the ground. And also the territory is very important. To be able to photograph the lions, you must know where every rock and tree is, while with aerial photography it is easy. That is why I was flying everyday over the territories of the lions and working. Then I came to France and sold my stories to so many magazines and I decided not to become a scientist, but a photographer. Voila.

How did aerial photography change your outlook?

I don’t know. Every day you change. You don’t change so much until you become older. Every day you’re like a sponge, you take things in. It’s more reading and more trying to analyze…what we see, the impact that we have. Since I am an ecologist, all my work is what we do on the planet. People think we speak about the sixth extension all the time, but it is not a small matter. People see it as a world, but it is not just a world – it is something really deep. The sixth extension of life on the planet is something so strong and amazing. I don’t understand why we don’t react. There are very few people who believe in it. People know, but they don’t want to believe. They don’t want to believe in what we know. As I said yesterday, I’m a little bit fed up with repeating this fact, I take more pleasure in doing something, like this movie. Like my new movie Woman.

I’m sorry, but doesn’t it seem a bit strange to make a movie about women, considering there’s no real difference between men and women?

I think that when you talk about women and when you go to the Arab countries, Bangladesh, India, Africa – it is not like here. So many things to say about being a woman… because to be a woman you don’t have the same rights as men do. They suffer more. There is always something more that can be said about a woman, more than a man. When I was finishing Human, I already had booked Half of the Sky for the film Woman. This is a Pulitzer prize book about the woman and vanity. It is awful. That is why I want to do a film about it. You know, in Africa if your husband dies all the property is taken by the brother and the wife gets nothing at all. She becomes poor and this is a big problem. I was reading a UN report which said that women were doing 50 to 60 % of the work on the planet and had only 1% of the property. It’s amazing. Another reason for filming it – I was not attentive enough, I was not taking proper care of this problem.

Only women do that, as much as they’re able to. Are there any screenings of Human in Arab countries?

Yes, everywhere. It’s actually funny because this movie is free on the internet. It’s going in theatres everywhere. With the premiere at an event in 15 days, I’m going to China, I was in America for the premiere 15 days ago, Brazil, the movie is coming out everywhere. In Spain it was number 1 in documentary cinema, in Italy number 1 also, so I’m very happy.

Did you conduct a survey to see how responses to Human differ across various countries?

There are small differences. If you work on homophobia, for example, you don’t say exactly the same questions all the people. For the refugees we ask more about why they left their country. There are variations of the movie, but the questions that we ask are still basically the same. Depending on the different situation additional questions are asked – in the case of war, such questions on hate and forgiveness would be asked, if poverty is a major problem – that would be discussed more, but we always finish with the subject of the meaning of life, of god and we start with those about family and happiness.

What about China?

It’s really difficult to work in China because we got no authorization. I wanted to shoot all the people who work in factories. The factory workers there don’t want to work in factories anymore because it is so hard. That is a big problem in China right now. They make more money but they are so unhappy. They are far from their children. So I wanted to focus more on the subject of sacrifice. We have done some good things but not enough. When you see how big China is, when we didn’t get authorization, we then worked with the Chinese production companies.

The tree shown at the end of the film?

The tree at the end is in the salt desert of Bolivia. It is water. We call it a fractal. It is a design you find everywhere. It is the same in your veins, you see them in the leaves through the microscope, the water moves like that – you can see it everywhere. When you fly, you see often this design, in everything, in big and small scale. It is the water in the salt and you have some algae that turns red. It is actually the same … that gives the red color of the flamingo.

Very symbolic, like the tree of life.

Exactly. I did not shoot this part, but when I saw it, it was……..ah!

Did you do most of the interviews?

No, no, very few. I’ve done 50 interviews, I’ve done the interviews with the more famous people: the Uruguay president, Bill Gates and the last interview in the film. The guy who speaks about death, paradise and says thank you to life because, in fact, we did something we do not do usually, but when I saw the interview, he was saying exactly the same thing but not nicely; so I told him please come back and you say it again. This is the only time we did this. I told him that what he said so beautifully that he wanted to go to paradise and to go by auto stop with his friend who died when he was 20…and I thought it was nice to finish with a thank you to life. People don’t understand how life…we are going to die and I don’t believe in god…so I think after it is finished…because you have to enjoy life now…you have to say thanks because it was a good time and everything he was saying was what I think to be true. So I did this interview and some American soldiers in America. This was important for me to speak about the pleasure of killing that is inside us. I did the girl from Israel, but all together I think I have done 50 interviews from 2000, so it’s not a lot. But I was looking through everything…you know…this is missing – we need more joy…voila.

So you have already started work on the film Woman?

Yes, we have done already over 60 interviews. That’s not a lot, we need around 3000. It is very interesting that every woman has something to say about that and we were hoping that they share more about themselves, because men talk very easily about themselves. It is more difficult for women to do that. All the journalists are girls. We also need them to speak about sex because we never speak and I think it’s important. It’s not easy.

How do you choose the people?

We work a lot. It’s between luck and preparation. When you are in front of the camera and you talk easily. It is not so difficult. You know the interview with the Russian guy with the child with autism. We didn’t know about this at all. This was a soldier and we interviewed him about the war in Ukraine and suddenly he speaks of his child because he wants to liberate himself. I have to say that so many people love the interviews. They are afraid in the beginning and so happy to have said what they wanted to say. Like a psychologist.

Yes, but you show it to the whole world – that is the difference.

Yes, but sometimes you don’t think about that. You are in front of the camera. You speak. When people come, we tell them – you’re going to participate in a movie which will be seen by millions of people so be careful what you say. Be good and if you have a message to send to the world…Everybody has a message to send to the world…if you want to say something important please say it. Now is your time. In fact I was surprised that we have no complaints. Only one – the man who says he has never been loved. His daughter came and was against showing it, but he had given his consent. It was a small complaint, she was very unhappy but that is life.

Last question, has our awareness of the environment and conflicts evolved since you first started working on these issues?

I think we know but we don’t change anything. Everybody knows now. It’s on the television, on the news every day. People know about that but they don’t want to think about that. They don’t want to change their comfort, in fact, to change our civilization. The way it works. We always want more. You know you have, for example, ads for attaining happiness everywhere. On the tv, in the airport, buy more, happiness is this and that, and it is very difficult to get out of this vicious circle. Buying, buying, buying and acquiring things.