Faced with monocultures, deforestation and the loss of biodiversity, producers practice regenerative agriculture. Humus presents the approach of a couple of market gardeners from Montérégie who want to establish a new relationship with the living.
Posted at 1:30 p.m.
Humus opens with the bobolink singing. François D’Aoust marvels to hear it on his land. Designated as an endangered species, the Bobolink is a rare bird. And if he has chosen to make his nest at Les Bontés de la Vallée farm, it is a sign of the biodiversity found there. With his wife, Mélina Plante, whom he met when she subscribed to his organic baskets, François D’Aoust relies on the great principles of nature to grow his fruits and vegetables.
Accustomed to denounce, the documentary filmmaker Carole Poliquin moves away with this film of the style that we know him. Yes Humus certainly denounces the impoverishment of the soil and the productivist system that characterizes industrial agriculture, it is only to better make room for the path of solutions, an approach that is gaining ground in the environmentalist discourse.
While on the surrounding land the fields are plowed over large areas, on this organic farm the birds sing, the beaver swims, the frogs jump and the insects work the soil. Director Carole Poliquin and cinematographer Geoffroy Beauchemin demonstrate this beautifully with high-contrast shots: exceptional macro views offer us a rare glimpse of insect life, while very graphic overall shots, filmed using a drone, testify to the relative smallness of the 16 hectares of Bontés de la Vallée.
By basing her film essentially on a single couple of farmers, and on François D’Aoust above all, the filmmaker bet big. Despite his acting flair, it takes time to connect with him and, although the film’s approach is not didactic, we sometimes get lost in his explanations, especially in the first half of the film.
But the market gardener ends up gaining confidence in front of the camera and us, to become attached to this authentic character, a fighter who knows his moments of vulnerability and who has a real love for nature. Kneeling in his field, he offers us touching moments of emotion.
The film drags with it a few lengths that we feel less on the big screen, a terrain more conducive to letting oneself be lulled by the poetry of the images, nature, traditional music, the sound of birds or that of the slug sliding on a leaf. . We come out of it with the desire to also put our hands on the ground.
A special screening will take place this Friday at 7 p.m. at Cinéma Beaubien in the presence of François D’Aoust, Mélina Plante and Carole Poliquin. A film-encounter will take place with the filmmaker at the Le Clap cinema in Quebec City on May 21 and with the market gardeners at La Maison du Cinéma in Sherbrooke on May 22.
Documentary
Humus
Carole Poliquin
With François D’Aoust and Mélina Plante
94 minutes
Indoors