Pierre Creton: To Travel Without Moving

Pierre Creton is an unusual figure in the world of cinema: besides from being an accomplished filmmaker (his fiction film Un prince premiered last year in the Cannes section Quinzaine des cinéastes), he is also an experienced farmer, beekeeper and cowherd. FIDMarseille, a festival that has been a big supporter of Creton’s work from the beginning, has just premiered his most recent film 7 Walks with Mark Brown co-directed, as some of his other films, by Vincent Barré. In partnership with FIDMarseille, DAFilms brings you a selection of Creton’s earlier documentary films.

Creton’s fascination with the natural world seeps into his documentary practice both conceptually and formally. His films are grounded in the local community, often focusing on other farmers, beekeepers or cereal growers that interest him (Le Vicinal, The Future Will Tell, Once Upon a Season). This grounding allows him to explore the world through stillness - his films show that through careful observations of the bucolic, seasonal, and everyday matter, one can begin to understand the universal. Cyril Neyrat, the Artistic Director of FIDMarseille, writes about Creton: “Times for art and for life merge. His work, encounters and readings give rise to films, which in turn shape his existence, opening him to new experiences and territories that eventually lead to other films.” This shows that there is always more to discover even in our immediate ecosystems. The cyclical nature of constant curiosity is also visible in Creton’s filmmaking style: either in his circular camera motions (House of Love), in the framings that are always in anticipation, or in the focus on more-than-human perspectives (La Cabane de Dieu) that can tell us more about the nature of life.