Today’s
Enlightening Entertainment
will be presented
in French,
with subtitles in Arabic,
Aulacese (Vietnamese),
Chinese, English,
French, German,
Indonesian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean,
Malay, Mongolian,
Persian, Portuguese,
Russian, Spanish
and Thai.
Who wants
to go to Earth?
UNTOLD STORY
Who wants
to go to Earth?
Impossible, you think
that they still have cars ?
OF THE BEAUTIFUL
PLANET
(Who wants to go)
To Narbos?
Excuse me, sir,
could you tell me which
country we are in here?
But… you are in France.
One of the most talented
French filmmakers
of the present,
Ms. Coline Serreau,
has always been inclined
to address social issues
in her successful
and engaging works.
Her famous
1985 comedy film,
“Three Men and a Cradle,”
won three prestigious
César Awards, including
one for Best Writing
by Ms. Serreau.
It shed a hilarious yet
heartwarming light
on fatherhood.
“La Belle Verte”
(The Green Beautiful),
was also written
and directed
by Coline Serreau, who
also starred in this 1996
movie with French actor
Vincent Lindon.
The film encouraged
viewers to question
the conventions of
human society on Earth,
by looking from the eyes
of beings from
another planet.
According to
this filmmaker, art should
serve the purpose of
improving people’s lives.
I was very touched
by your movie
“Saint Jack, Mecca.”
And often you show
in your movie…
you really have
a benevolent look
on people;
and you often show
their evolution,
their transformation
toward the good.
And that’s exactly one of
those examples.
And why exactly did you
choose this title?
Saint Jack, Mecca?
Yes.
Because these are
big pilgrimages and
it is also a way to say:
We have different opinions,
different climates,
different varieties
of plants and animals
on this planet and
it’s true that it is good
that we are very different
from one another.
But in the end,
the profound aspirations
are the same;
for humans in any case.
And even,
I would nearly say, also
for plants and animals.
So the idea to leave
the house, to walk,
to make a journey
to try to understand
something of life,
that has always existed
in every civilization,
in all cultures.
The great myths
and the great events
that punctuate a life,
have always
been the same
in all the big religions.
There is the pilgrimage,
there is the fast
in all religions.
There are the great rites
of passage.
And it was a way to say,
let’s stop fighting
with each other.
Because we have in fact
the same rites.
Yes,
and on that path exactly,
it’s the story of
brothers and sisters.
Yes, of brothers
and a sister who quarrel
like cat and dog,
who haven’t surpassed
adulthood at all,
nor childhood,
and who will,
during this path,
will try to surpass it,
in any case
to understand at least
that they can get on, that
they have the same roots,
they have the same…
it is a path of
difficult reconciliation.
We have to mention
to the viewers
that there is also great
humor in your movies;
that one laughs
a happy laugh, a laugh
that is full of love.
There is a way to look at
people with love.
There is also
another film, “Chaos.”
This one is a little different.
And this heroine...
she transforms herself.
She still stands up and
changes completely...
Yes. “Chaos” really is
a triple transformation.
I think that everyone
has something
very good in them,
but it has been destroyed
or altered,
one way or the other.
And what I find
interesting is
precisely when things
revolutionize and change.
So, he changes,
his wife also changes.
as she becomes aware
that she must look after
this girl,
she is also aware that
she can't just be oblivious
to anything else.
I think there are moments
of awakening;
something that resonated
in her and
made her understand that
in doing that, she is also
helping herself.
And so, she focuses
on her own life,
her relationship
with her son, her
husband that she loves.
And obviously,
the girl who has been
very harsh, very tough
after what
she has been through,
is also changing.
There is another very
good movie entitled
“The Green Beautiful”
that you made,
already more than
15 years ago I think.
we have to say
that you have been
and still are
a great precursor
in many things.
You have a vision of
our society –
people talk about it today
– but 15 years ago
you were the only one
to talk about it
and point out
what was wrong
and what was absurd.
It is true that
during that time...
It is funny because
while I was doing it,
I was so sure.
I mean not sure of myself
– because
I am always in doubt
and when we create
we question everything
all the time, every day.
But I mean,
I was in a state of
profound conviction
that what I was doing
was right;
that I was saying
the right thing.
It really was a very
profound conviction
because it takes
three years of one's
lifetime to make a movie.
It is physically
very, very difficult.
If you really don't have
this intimate and
profound conviction
that it is worth it,
frankly it is not worth
doing it.
And so, I had this
conviction; and when
the movie was released,
people did not see
what was in it…
And so, it was
very difficult for me
at that time.
But eventually
it caught up.
I mean, now people
probably talk about that
movie more than
any other movie.
He was a bit premature
but now he is
developing well.
Who wants to go to Earth?
“The Green Beautiful”
paints a peaceful world
on another planet,
where the people live
in a more advanced stage
than their counterparts
on Earth, that is,
in simplicity and
harmony with nature.
Telepathic and egalitarian,
they are a vegetarian
people who cultivate
and share their crops.
It is understandable that
no one from this planet
wants to visit
the less evolved Earth.
However, Mila, played
by Coline Serreau,
volunteers to visit.
So what should we do?
As usual,
we don’t go there?
Excuse me,
but I want to go there.
Are you absolutely insane?
Professor Max Varron,
head of this service.
Oh,
you are carnivorous?!
NOW IN
THREE LANGUAGES
Here it is, sir.
My name is Mila.
I come from
another planet.
I need your help.
And you will
explain this to police.
Who is the Police.
DREAMING
No, it’s the banknotes
which are worth something.
Paper bills.
You think that they
still have this money?!
No.
Everything that
was harmful for life,
we didn’t buy anymore,
or threw away.
Already, 15 years ago,
you said you were
coming from another
planet, more evolved.
And you say,
“How is it possible?
How come they still
use money
and are carnivores
and personal interests
come first…?
Yes. As they say,
we need money.
We even need money
for food.
We have to eat.
So we shouldn't buy food.
What is that?
In fact this seems obvious.
We shouldn't buy food;
eating is a right.
Clean air, clean water;
this is a right;
it is a right that was
taken away from us.
The land is free as well.
What I mean is that
the earth gives freely.
I will take one
of the best examples:
seeds – besides,
the whole ancient farming,
which is perennial,
productive,
and which nourishes
and cures us, is free.
That is,
there is nothing to buy.
Everything here
circulates and nourishes us.
And so, we become
once again as noble
as the animals and plants
that do not need
to buy their food.
A seed would give us
thousands of other seeds.
And now they created
a system where one seed
gives us nothing.
And that is what
we are forced to eat,
and what makes us sick.
And on top of that,
it limits the completely
natural generosity
of the earth.
How did Noah manage?
He planted
a grain of wheat.
And then he had ten,
a hundred,
a thousand and it spread.
That is how we
have survived.
In April 2010,
Ms. Coline Serreau’s
newest film was released:
“Local Solutions
for a Global Disorder.”
It took her deepest concerns,
shared by
a growing number
of people worldwide,
regarding the problems
of modern-day
food production
as well as the solutions.
We are not
in an infinite world, we
are in an finite world.
But we are constructing
an agriculture
in an infinite way.
“Let’s go!”
The petroleum
will soon be exhausted.
And the soil, well
that’s really finished.
The soils are dead.
We live in virtual deserts.
The minute you remove
the petroleum,
you remove the fertilizers,
the pesticides
and everything
which feeds the tractors
and the tractors,
there are no more soils,
there is nothing anymore;
it’s like plastic.
It’s exactly like
that floor there.
It will give nothing;
it will give nothing anymore.
And I still wanted to ask you
– having seen
your remarkable movies,
and which I really
encourage everyone
to see – where does your
optimism come from?
Yes.
Because humor helps.
And I am optimistic
because why should we
be pessimistic?
We can be conscious
but pessimistic...
I do not know! Because
I like this world still.
Yes. And you believe
in human beings?
Yes of course,
I believe in human being.
otherwise I wouldn't
have had children.
And as mothers,
we are inevitably even
more sensitive because
as we bring children
into the world,
we want them to live.
We gave birth to them,
we brought them up and
we pushed them into
this world.
And we did not do this
so that they would find
themselves in a world
which is only bad.
In fact,
we can change things.
Always.
For more information
about Coline Serreau,
please visit
Gracious viewers,
thank you for
your pleasant company
on today’s
Enlightening Entertainment.
Please join us again
as our interview
with the gifted
French filmmaker
Ms. Coline Serreau
continues tomorrow,
Wednesday, November 3.
Now, Words of Wisdom
is coming up next,
after Noteworthy News.
May moments
of happiness be showered
upon you and
your cherished ones.
Today’s
Enlightening Entertainment
will be presented
in French,
with subtitles in Arabic,
Aulacese (Vietnamese),
Chinese, English,
French, German,
Indonesian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean,
Malay, Mongolian,
Persian, Portuguese,
Russian, Spanish
and Thai.
Distinguished
French filmmaker
Ms. Coline Serreau,
writer and director of
the César Award winning
1985 comedy film,
“Three Men and a Cradle,”
the 1996 film
“La Belle Verte”
(The Green Beautiful),
and others, is well known
for her many thought-
provoking works.
Today, all over France
and other countries,
we can watch
her newest production,
“Local Solutions
for a Global Disorder”:
a large study on how
we live with regards
to our food.
What is really going on
with the food
we produce,
with the vital soil,
and agriculture itself?
How unsafe and
how unsustainable
has our food become?
What are the solutions?
The pesticides came out
of the war.
The fertilizers came out
of the war.
The invention
of the sulfur mustard will
become all insecticides.
A FILM BY
COLINE SERREAU
IS MAN
THE PROBLEM?
You see crazy stuff;
guys who create
square tomatoes to better
store them in crates.
IS MAN
THE SOLUTION?
So, what to do?
LOCAL SOLUTIONS
FOR A GLOBAL DISORDER
Some solutions are
indicated in this movie.
LOCAL SOLUTIONS
FOR A GLOBAL
DISORDER
A film by Coline Serreau
Soon, well… when we sit
at the dinner table,
we’ll have to… instead of
wishing each other
“bon appétit” we’ll
have to say “good luck.”
“Local Solutions
for a Global Disorder”
was premiered
in Belgium at the
European Parliament.
Parliament Member
Her Excellency
Michèle Rivasi from
France commented,
“I wanted to broadcast
the film in the presence
of Coline Serreau in
the European Parliament
because it just
brings concrete solutions
replicable throughout
the world.”
According to the director
Coline Serreau, the time
had come for a film
that not only spelled
the frightening warnings,
but also offered
alternatives through the
voices of the best experts
– small crop farmers,
philosophers,
and economists.
And we know now
that there are about –
in France alone – there
are more than 8 million
people who have
different practices, who
do things differently,
who reflect, who
experiment and all that.
So in fact,
this new society is not
a majority, but she is
bristling with life
to soon become
the only society which
can continue to give us
an existence.
There. So that was what
I wanted to show,
that this new society,
this society we are awaiting,
we are hoping for,
is in the making.
It is being made by
people who don’t
have a voice.
Or the small people –
because the farmers
rarely have a voice.
To make the film,
Ms. Coline Serreau
traveled around the world
for three years, speaking
with some of the most
knowledgeable about
sustainable community
initiatives across
various countries.
And deep down, I see the
reactions of the public –
of course they learn
many things with
great specialists.
But what really
touches them, is to see
the small lady in Ukraine
who shows us
how beautiful
the seeds are which
she selected herself,
and the hybrid seeds
are less good.
Or how
Narayan Reidi,
the small Indian farmer,
can, on 1.8 hectares,
feed 15 people,
totally self-sufficient,
and sell tons of fruit,
tons of spices,
tons of cereals.
He is incredibly rich.
India is an extremely
rich country.
Even those who are urban,
they have grandparents
who were inevitably
farmers.
So everyone knows
somehow unconsciously
that it’s there
where we are fed,
by the earth.
The example of
India’s past as a future
possibility for sustainable
way of life
is an appealing idea
to the filmmaker.
Because in India, nearly
70% of the population
is rural.
They had
an extraordinary system
of peasantry.
They had very small plots.
Whatever happened,
the people were not hungry.
Why was it that
they were not hungry?
What makes
agriculture work?
It is when there is
something called
a perennial system,
in other words,
a system which does not
exhaust the resources,
but which revitalizes them.
They had a system of
conserving monsoon
water which is
extraordinary.
Precisely
as your movie says:
the solution exists.
And as you say,
it happens
in different countries,
in different places
in the world.
Yes. people who do not
even know each other
do the same thing.
Today, industrialized
conventional methods
are silently wreaking
havoc in the ecosphere.
And on the earth,
what is there?
Millions and billions
of animals, and germs,
and fungus that are
crawling in there;
the earth is them.
The earth is a fauna.
While a part is in charge
of nourishing the plants
and airing the soil,
another part is in charge of,
in greater depth,
bringing up the minerals
in the rocks;
that is the role they play.
And all that is destroyed
by bringing
an industrial system of
monoculture.
You are destroying this,
because at that moment,
what you produce
is no longer considered
as something which
has to circulate
and feed the people.
It is considered
as a merchandise.
From the moment
that it is considered
as a merchandise,
it always needs to be sold
more expensive.
And then you start
to exhaust the earth,
because you put extra
chemical fertilizers.
You’re adding things
which kill life in the earth.
You will get a very
big production which
will little by little
be exhausted as it is
happening at the moment.
How do you see the place
of the livestock animal?
It is not in your movie,
which you made
a very long time ago,
15 years ago,
“The Beautiful Green.”
And you were
the principal heroine.
You came from
another planet,
and there on Earth.
And you are also
shocked to see
( “They eat cadavers!”)
and carnivorous people.
There.
That is also the same
problem in fact.
The plant proteins,
you see,
there are lots of them.
First it’s very bad
for our health to eat
too much meat, it is
the highway to cancer.
And then also, we
really are very numerous
nowadays on this planet.
We can feed all
the people who are there
perfectly well.
But we cannot feed them
if we keep giving them
meat all the time.
Because meat equals
20 vegetarian meals…
A steak equals
20 meals of grain.
And this food,
those 20 meals,
which are soya meal,
all those things which
we feed to animals to be
able to eat animals.
They themselves consume
a huge amount of water.
So, there are millions of
liters of water that
disappear and dry up
the planet for soya meal.
We have convinced
people that they need
a lot of meat
to earn more money
with the meat.
But this doesn’t
correspond to a human need.
It corresponds to a kind
of accumulation.
So it destroys the cows –
the cows become very ill,
it has already been proven,
the mad cow disease,
all the diseases
which come with it.
It makes everybody ill.
And you are saying
that one of the solutions
is organic farming.
Yes. Organic and local.
That is what we stand for.
Because it can be
organic and still come
from Romania
or even Morocco;
meanwhile, people
go hungry over there,
while good organic food
is made for rich people.
This is not good either;
it is not like that.
We have to produce
organic food locally
and live on food that is
growing in our country,
on our land,
as they grow.
The intensive agriculture
is so-called
“feeding the entire world.”
It has well proven
that it cannot.
Organic agriculture
on the contrary,
the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO)
has said in its last report
that organic agriculture
can feed the planet
without any problem.
So well, if they don’t take
stock of this incredible
injustice and this chaos,
they will be swept away.
Because it has always
ended up like that in history.
At a certain moment,
people want to live
and then that’s it.
And they can become
violent!
There is nobody who
feels like taking up
the weapons.
People want to live
happily in peace;
to raise their kids,
to live and to live good.
We could say that
your movie entitled
“Local Solution
for a Global Disorder”
in reality – if these
solutions are applied –
could engender
a big revolution?
Yes, it is the big revolution.
The word revolution
is when it’s turning.
So there are several
meanings for this word.
The revolution
is surely necessary
insofar as the system…
that there is a rotation
of values and that
the system changes;
because revolution
means evolving.
It will have to
evolve at least.
If you would have
a magic stick for instance,
as a filmmaker,
in theory you could
have one;
what would be the world
in which you would like
to live?
How do you see this world?
Do you think
it can be realized?
But I like this world,
if not I wouldn’t want
to change it.
On the contrary, 99% of
the people are superb.
So I’m not looking for
another world.
It is this world that needs
to be transformed.
I am a very
modest filmmaker;
in other words,
I am a reflection of
the society in which I live.
It’s others
who give me food.
And it’s the others
who give me intellectual
food as well;
through my observation
of the world.
That’s my role.
I am not a politician, and
I’m not at all somebody
who tells people,
“Do this, do that!”
But it’s true that a world
where we already
could eat correctly and
have peace in our head
by telling ourselves,
“My children eat well;
they eat things which
don’t poison them and
which will not
make them ill,”
that would already
be an enormous progress.
And also that we
wouldn’t be in a system
of oppression and
dependence anymore.
In other words, that we
are in an autonomous
system, where everyone
decides what he would
like to do. In mutual aid
and collective systems…
People are never happy
to be assisted.
People, humans
are made to work.
They want to work,
to make useful things
for themselves
and for others.
At the end of the day,
that’s the
“why are we on Earth?”
It is also to make
good things.
So let's end this
with a positive
and constructive note.
I would like to offer
this book to you:
“The Noble Wilds”
by Supreme Master
Ching Hai.
This is beautiful!
The Noble Wilds.
I did not know this book;
this is beautiful!
I will look at it.
Thank you very much.
Thanks to you
and congratulations
for your wonderful work.
Thank you.
And we wish that
you keep producing
more and more
beautiful movies.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
For more information
about Coline Serreau
and her film,
please visit
Ms. Coline Serreau, we
appreciate and applaud
your brilliant films
that inspire us to return
to our original
harmonious values
with one another
and the Earth.
We join in
optimistic anticipation
of an awakened humanity
that will protect
its ecological home
as it cares for
all co-inhabitants.
Gracious viewers,
thank you for your
pleasant company
on today’s
Enlightening Entertainment.
Now, Words of Wisdom
is coming up next,
after Noteworthy News.
Blessed be you and
your loved ones with
vitality and happiness.