Skip to content
EN FR
Communities

The same questions, everywhere

One profile per community I meet: what people do there, how it is organised, what I understood, and what I did not.

No profiles yet

I have not met any community yet. Each profile will be written within two days of a stay.

What does exist already is the method. It is still a work in progress, and the first community will show what it is worth.

How I approach people

The order matters

Taking out a microphone on day one closes doors that do not open again. The equipment only comes in at the third step.

  1. Arrive and ask for nothing

    Introduce yourself, explain why you are there, listen. Two or three days without any equipment at all.

  2. Ask

    Explain what happens to the recordings, where they will be shown, and what will not be done with them.

  3. Record

    Ordinary conversations first. Set interviews come afterwards, if the agreement is there.

  4. Give it back

    Show what was recorded to the people concerned when that is possible.

What I do not do:

  • Film a religious or funeral practice without an explicit invitation
  • Photograph a child without the agreement of a responsible adult
  • Promise something in return that I am not sure I can deliver
  • Publish the exact location of a place that lives on being left alone
The interview framework

The questions asked in every community

The same broad questions everywhere, so that the answers can be compared from one community to the next. They come in no set order, in the course of conversation and over several days. Here are the ideas so far: the list will change before I leave, and I do not know yet how many questions it will hold, or which ones.

  • What does an ordinary day look like here?
  • Who decides what, and how do you settle it when you disagree?
  • What has changed since the oldest people here were children?
  • What works better here than elsewhere, in your view?
  • What does not work, and what would you like to change?
  • What connects you to the land, to plants, to animals?
  • What do you pass on to children that is not taught at school?
  • What do you need that does not come from here?
  • What would you like people to understand, back where I come from?
Consent

No publication should be able to embarrass the person who appears in it

I do not publish any face, name or place without explicit agreement. Before publishing anything, I ask myself whether I would be comfortable telling the people I filmed about it.