Interview with Jerome-Cecile Auffret

The film is the first of 13 films in a series titled The Lord of the Animals. Each 26-minute documentary installment explores the ancient relationship between human beings and animals. The films have received great praise and distributors in 40 countries.

Jerome-Cecile Auffret, a director with the production company, accepted the award on behalf of Malaterre and Boreales. Outside Online talked with Auffret about Boreales and the thinking behind the Lord of the Animals series, which Auffret said explores "the relationships of humans and animals from a timeless perspective--their interdependence."

These films show "timeless and ancient stories," said Auffret, who is fascinated by the old values that still survive in isolated regions, all sharing a similar relation to the land and its animals. "These films are about a deep and traditional relationship to animals," he said. "Most of the films are very ancient relationships, from the birth of humanity."

Auffret's desire to make films took him to many parts of the world. His desire was to wed his travels with documentary films.

"Film is just a tool for expression," he said. "We respect the public and know that there must be drama with a story that the public can follow. These are not stolen pictures (like other documentaries), but created images with attention to the best light and camera work."

They spend one to two years filming one 26-minute film, he said, "a long time living with the people to become friends, hear their stories." The goal is to get the subjects involved in the film. First, there is on-site research, and listening to the stories. Then back to Paris to study the history and the legends of the people, all to create a script for the documentary.

They then return to the country and the people become characters in the stories they have told, often revealing more, adding to the script, as they become part of the film. They live or relive the situation for the camera.

Auffret stressed that "the characters are not actors," they are not directed, but collaborate with the filmmakers. "We have a person-to-person contract." Because the subjects are incorporated into the creation Auffret feels the films have a heightened intimacy and more effective message for the viewers.

"We want to speak to a large public, bring a dream and a poetry to the people. The learning is in the background," he said. Auffret described the process as "inviting the characters to dream with us. Some of the film comes from their fantasy."

Documentaries made by Westerners represent outsiders' views of a group, he said. But his films strive to incorporate the stories he's heard with the people he's met. They are films made of people's lives, dreams, and beliefs.

"We are Europeans, Westerners, and see these things with these eyes," he said. This intimate process requires great effort, "You can compare it to a mine. You find the gold if you dig and dig."

The actual shooting can last more than a month because they concentrate on using only the best light, "there are parts of the day we do not shoot at all," Auffret stated. He describes this process as a handcrafting of a film. "It is haute couture (high fashion), not prete-a-porte (ready to wear). We do not rush to finish the films."

This style brings up the question if these films are truly documentaries. "We don't claim to make documentaries, we claim to make tales," he said, though adding, "We show only the truth. We use the light, we use technique. Besides, editing a documentary is already changing the reality."

"We do not shoot them through a window," Auffret said. "They are not actors but acting out their own stories and creating their own stories."

The response to this approach has been encouraging for Auffret and the entire Boreales Production Company. The family business started with a mother as a manager and her two sons as producer and director. Auffret says Boreales has changed from "a family company into a tribe, a real tribal business."

In addition to the Lord of the Animals series, they have completed a longer film called Legends, a 52-minute production completely based on the legends of different local cultures.

They have also branched out to explore the relationship of music, mothers, and children. The series is called Mother Music and two films have been completed, one on steel drums and the other on Cuban percussion. "Background is society, foreground is music," Auffret said.

The company also starts filming a feature film beginning November of 1996, a fiction film called Hanouman (the Hindu King of the Monkeys). The film is being directed by Frederic Fougea and is to be shot in India on ancient monkey temple ruins for four months.

Until this feature is released, look for the Lord of the Animals series to be featured on the Discovery Channel, which has bought the rights to the series through June 1997.

Or see The Tsaatan--The Reindeer Riders (awarded both the Grand Prize and Best Film on Mountain Culture at the 1996 Banff Film Festival) and all the other award winners from the festival in the Best of the Festival World Tour. For further information on the Tour, contact Nancy DaDalt at 403-762-6423; fax, 403-762-6277; or e-mail, MFF@BanffCentre.AB.CA.

By Adam Hicks