Wildlife filmmaker
‘I wanted to become a wildlife filmmaker so I could be an active participant in my own life, because I wanted to be free and because I love nature. Wide-open spaces are the stuff dreams are made of – they make us think and help us understand the world and our own interconnectedness. I don’t think of myself as an explorer in the true sense of the word; rather, I explore my own relationship with nature and with life.’
François Bel
A pioneer in the world of wildlife filmmaking
François Bel, director
François Bel was born in 1931 in Lons-le-Saunier, in France’s Jura region. He passed away in Paris in January 2007.
In 1955, he began making wildlife films in the Gabon and the Central African Republic, and made many animal films in collaboration with the French National Museum of Natural History, including the short Les Animaux d’Alsace.
In 1957, he shot several commercials and industrial films, which enabled him to develop, alongside Gérard Vienne, special 35mm colour technology for shooting wildlife images.
They would go on to make several wildlife short films together.
In 1963, the duo founded the Cinéastes Animaliers Associés production company, and, in 1970, they made European wildlife documentary The Territory of Others, with a musical score by Michel Fano. The film won the Grand Prix de la Commission Supérieure Technique du Cinéma at the Cannes Film Festival and the Grand Prix de l'Académie du Cinéma Français.
In 1971, it was France’s submission for the Oscars and for the international World Wildlife Fund congress in London.
In 1976, Bel and Gérard Vienne made Fang and Claw, the first feature film depicting big cats hunting prey in Eastern Africa to be shot primarily at night. The film won the Grand Prix de la Commission Supérieure Technique du Cinéma at the Cannes Film Festival and the Décibel d’Or for Best Film Soundtrack of the Year. It was France’s submission for the Oscars and earned a Best Sound nomination at the 1977 César Awards.
Between 1980 and 1993, Bel shot The Ark and the Deluge, a naturalist fiction film – in the broadest sense of the term – centred around one of the most essential cornerstones of life: water. Gabriel Yared created the score for the film.
In July 2002, he was made Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture and Communication.
‘This, of course, is my own point of view – and that is exactly what I wanted to show and share with the audience.’
François Bel
François Bel has earned a reputation as a unique naturalist who changed the rules of the genre, with wildlife films based around a wholly new perception of the universe – a far cry from the educational documentary and anthropomorphic fiction. He provides no pedagogical commentary, no marked path. Tender and brutal, his images transport us to the four corners of the world, speaking in very simple terms of water, light and winds, of animal encounters, of the moon and of silence.
Forever chasing the perfect image, Bel was an environmentalist and poet of animal intelligence and few words.
Camera in hand, he spent years trekking across the icy poles all the way to the plateaus of Africa. Confident gait, weathered face and thin skin. A wildlife filmmaker and provocateur, both earthly and otherworldly.
‘I believe that it is important to try to acquire a certain amount of personal wisdom throughout one’s life – out of respect for oneself and for others.
I am often asked whether I’m happier around animals than humans, and if perhaps I have a habit of avoiding civilisation. Let’s just say that I love humans as individuals rather than as a society. What I find interesting about people is their desire to create, to question, to interact with the world in a variety of ways. Through art and mythology.
The world, time, humans, animals – we are all connected. This is what I aim to convey through my work.’
François Bel