There was a forest is a contemporary fable told by Fred Pellerin whose moral is very simple: nature is of inestimable generosity that we must preserve with the most precious of care. The artist who manipulates words like puppets thus gives us to see the thousand and one secrets of his 60-hectare forest in Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, in Mauricie. Between the lake, the woods, the nourishing forest and the sugar season, this one, indeed, has a lot to offer to its inhabitants, who all have a role to play in this daily spectacle. And humans are no exception!
To do this, Fred Pellerin sets out to meet enthusiasts and scholars for whom the forest holds no secrets. If everyone speaks their own language — like biologist Pierre Magnan, a great speckled trout specialist in Quebec —, everyone agrees: at the edge of this peaceful and luxuriant wood, the fauna and flora live in relative harmony, but fragile, which absolutely must be protected so that future generations also have access to the riches of this territory.
The documentary series notably highlights the magnificence of insects thanks to the testimony of entomologist Étienne Normandin. According to the scientist, the diversity and quantity of these tiny invertebrates are an excellent indicator for assessing the health of ecosystems. Between two explanations, Fred Pellerin and he will even witness the metamorphosis of a dragonfly after it has spent a year under the water of the lake as a larva.
To see in video