HUMAN, Volume One – Dharma Documentaries

A film as unlikely as it is riveting in which people speak about the things that matter to them in their lives.

I have featured films by the French photographer and film maker Yann Arthus-Bertrand here before, especially remembering his HOME, which made a big impact in 2010.

Over the past few years he has been working on a new project, called HUMAN. It sounds, at least to me, a bit unlikely: place people against a darkened background, face forward, and ask them to speak about what really matters.

The outcome, however, is quite amazing and will stay with me for a long time. Although they did interview over 2,000 people for the film, and have obviously picked the best, still it is a wonder how they go so many to simply bare their souls on screen in such a moving manner.

From the opening interview in which a convicted murderer tells how he found love onwards the film is very intense, with some relief coming from intermission-type breaks showing Arthus-Bertrand’s arial videography.

There are three parts to this extended edition of the film, and I will show Volume Two next week. In Volume One people speak mainly on the themes of love, sex, women, work and poverty. Below the main film I also include an overview by the film maker in which he discusses what he was aiming at, and what his methods were in making these films.