2014 Conseil régional Rhône-Alpes Conseil régional Rhône-Alpes
Rhône-Alpes is home to humanity's first images: more than a thousand drawings decorate the cave at Pont d'Arc, Ardèche, which has just been registered as a world heritage site by Unesco.
On the walls of the oldest decorated cave in the world are displayed astonishing frescoes of moving animals: horses, lions, bisons flee head lowered, their multiple hooves suggesting a gallop, the juxtaposition of images breaking down their dynamic leaps.
Already thirty-six thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was laying the groundwork for graphic narration and sequential movement, the ancestors of the animated image. Even more: adopting the relief and cavities of the cave to give depth to this marvelous bestiary, Cro Magnon man invented the image in 3D.
These stupifyingly beautiful images harbour a great secret. What were our ancestors, the Aurignacians, expressing when they left on the walls of the Chauvet cave these representations of animals but also a figure representing the body of a woman? Were they documenting reality in a prescientific attempt to understand and describe the world? Were their gestures born of magical practice or spiritual concerns?
Thirty-six thousand years later, on this same Ardèche land, the Lussas États généraux du film documentaire continue this reflection, a process which has become essential as a deluge of non-stop images submerge henceforth our lives.
In addition to presenting a panorama of creative French-language documentary, this curious, demanding and engaged festival invites people to think about the composition, the meaning, the impact of images.
In the cinemas or under the stars, recognised masterpieces, retrospectives, the works of young authors are proposed to an ever larger public, while professionals from around the world meet in seminars and the numerous workshops.
To each and every one of you, I wish a twenty-sixth edition rich in discovery, reflection and experience.
Jean-Jack Queyranne
Président de la région Rhône-Alpes
Ancien ministre
Jean-Jack Queyranne