Les ateliers Varan

Gare du Nord in Paris is a transit station for all those coming from the suburbs, the provinces or abroad. Accompanied by Simon Mérabet, the son of Algerian immigrants from the Var, Human Geography offers a series of brief meetings with individuals who recount their lives in just a few words before disappearing to take their trains. The crowd of passengers is embodied in these stories, one life after another, and we see how globalization fashions individual destinies, subject to geographical and economic pressures.

About questioning, cycling and moving on.

Alix left his native island, Martinique, and its musical culture, to study opera singing in Paris. Portrait of a young man who now embraces all his singularities: his rare countertenor voice, his kohl and his done nails. He works hard to realize his dream of becoming a professional artist.

A secret figure in French underground cinema, Maria Koleva has filmed all over Paris, written about Marx and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Serge Daney. This documentary is a portrait of a histrionic Koleva, trying to reveal her militant, poetic and cinematographic universe, located in the Latin Quarter of Paris.

From inside the kiosk, you can hear the trains leaving for Nairobi. In this little restaurant, the customers with the lowest income have gathered to eat a cheap meal, the only one they can afford. All around the station people rush about, cook and eat, in time to the rattle of the trains.

Wakis, a lumberjack in the Central African Republic, works with his family collecting wood to process into charcoal. But faced with its increasing scarcity—and to avoid conflicts with his neighbours—he must “hunt” trees further and further away from his production site. Tanguy Djaka Yarissi creates an accurate social chronicle about the insecurity of a traditional trade. – Emmanuel Chicon

Sediq and Yousof work for the small electricity distribution sub-station in the district of Char Qala-e-Wazirabad. From day to day, they have to deal with the electricity shortage and repair the derelict installations. The film follows them as they're working and reveals life in a popular neighbourhood of Kabul.

The father and mother of a little boy are both motorcycle cab drivers. The boy is often left alone in the single room that is their home. Produced by Ateliers Varan Vietnam.

Documenting the transformation of Bưởi Road in Hanoi, from a labyrinth of houses and small businesses to a highway, with demolition crew destroying buildings - some still inhabited, gleaners looking for metal scraps to sell for a living, and people living on the edge of this crowded road finding a way to keep on living.

Portrait of a young woman through her relationship to money. The director films her friend for a whole month. The dynamic of the film is based on the bond between the director and Patricia, and on the reactions of this young woman to the financial difficulties, real or imaginary that she meets.

The Vietnamese State has decided to modernise and to establish vast tourist complexes along the entire coastal zone of the agricultural region of Quang Nam, forcing peasants off their lands. The film recounts the reactions of the inhabitants, many of whom participated in the liberation struggle for the independence of Vietnam.

In Paris, there is a network of men married to young Filipinas, chosen through an international agency. Here is the portrait of a couple from this business: immersed in a happiness that drowns the spectator.

The grandfather tries to explain the family history, the traditions, privileges and duties of the eldest son to his grandson, who agrees to stay on in the village, unlike others of his generation who have left for the city.

What does the people in the street think of nuclear physics today? These men and women do not walk far from the imposing Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (Porte de la Villette, Paris). They have more nuanced ideas than one might imagine, just like those of scientists. This rapprochement between everyone is beneficial.

Montmartre, in the square. They pass each other, ogle and play. As much as they sniff, lick and bite each other. The regulars have a field day.

Saud now lives in Paris, caring with devotion and tenderness for his two young children while closely following the drama in Gaza. “It's hard to be far away.” He speaks sadly of his situation as a Palestinian citizen of Israel. When he accompanies his daughter to school, they both stick up placards for the liberation of Palestine...

A look at the life of society's outcasts through three locations: the Fleury-Mérogis prison, a low-income housing project in the Paris region, and the shacks of a vacant lot at the gateway to Saint-Ouen. A reflection on the idea and use of freedom.

For centuries, along the Mekong river, the brick kilns in Mang This used to be the symbol of the delta’s economic prosperity. Now, the last brick kilns finally come to an end.