''Human'' is a 2015 documentary by French

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

Yann Arthus-Bertrand Yann Arthus-Bertrand (born 13 March 1946) is a French environmentalist, activist, journalist and photographer. He has also directed films about the impact of humans on the planet. He is especially well known for his book ''Earth from Above'' (19 ...

. The film is almost entirely composed of exclusive aerial footage and first-person stories told into the camera. It was the first film to premiere in the General Assembly Hall of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

, to an audience of 1,000 viewers, including the

UN Secretary General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-g ...

Ban Ki-moon. The film was financed by the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, which gave it rights-free to the

GoodPlanet Foundation The GoodPlanet Foundation is a non-governmental organization founded by Yann Arthus-Bertrand in 2005, supporting ecology and sustainable development. Activities The GoodPlanet Foundation is mainly concerned with the distribution of pedagogic ...

, responsible for driving the project. An extended version of the film is officially freely available on

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(in three parts).

Production

''Human'' was produced over a period of three years, with director Yann Arthus-Bertrand and a team of 20 people interviewing more than 2000 people in 60 countries. The crew included five journalists and

cameramen A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not imply that a male is performing the task. In filmmakin ...

with a "fixer" in each location for organizing things and four people responsible for receiving and sorting the material. The aerial crew had 6 people including Arthus-Bertrand. Each person interviewed was asked the same set of forty questions and was presented on a plain black background without any musical score or any details about their identity and locale. Arthus-Bertrand hoped that removing personal identifiers would draw focus to our similarities, explaining that they "... wanted to concentrate on what we all share. If you put the name of a person, or what country they’re from, you don’t feel that as strongly".

Distribution and promotion

According to the film’s website, its distribution is designed to be made under "the freest conditions to the widest possible audience." On 12 September 2015, the film was screened simultaneously at the United Nations, at the Biennale del cinema in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

and on

. It was also premiered in over 400 screens in France on the same day.

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, the exclusive digital partner of the film, made the film accessible worldwide on ''YouTube'' in six languages:

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

and French. The film was released in 11 different variations, including a theatrical version, a web version in three parts, a music version, TV episodic cuts and behind-the-scenes footage available on YouTube.

Awards

At the 2016

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Fest ...

, ''Human'' won the award for Most Popular International Documentary (based on audience balloting).

Critical response

The film was generally well received by critics who praised its unprecedented scale and coverage of topics such as family,

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

, ambition, failure,

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

, war and poverty. The film was also praised for the truth and brutal honesty behind the people's stories as well as Arthus-Bertrand's artistry in contrasting the subjects with aerial shots that are infused with motion, color and people. However,

film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outl ...

Guy Lodge criticized the movie for its arduous three-hour length, saying that "... these stories retain little individual power or resonance, while the pic’s sporadic interludes of lush landscape lensing risk aestheticizing the personal struggles in question".

References

External links