JUNE 8 - WORLD OCEANS DAY
FILM SCREENING - TARA OCEANS, THE  SECRET  WORLD
At : Nausicaa (Boulogne-sur-Mer), Océanopolis (Brest), Aquarium (Saint Malo), Cité de la Voile Eric Tabarly (Lorient), Aquarium de la Porte Dorée (Paris), Mare Nostrum (Montpellier), Musée de la mer (Biarritz), Aquarium (La Rochelle), Oceanographic Institute (Paris), Museum of Oceanography (Monaco)

On the occasion of World Oceans Day, and as part of the  “Ocean Days” program organized by the Ecology Administration, a screening of one of 4 documentaries in the series “Tara Oceans, the Secret World” will take place simultaneously at 13 sites in France.

Series synopsis: Tara Oceans, The Secret World
Seen from space, the earth is blue. But what do we really know about the earth’s oceans? What lives in the oceans? To answer these questions, teams of scientists embark on the schooner ‘Tara’. This voyage leads to a secret world called “plankton”, an almost unknown realm containing millions of different organisms.  One thing is certain: plankton plays a major role in life on planet Earth.

Why these 4 documentaries?
by Michael Pitiot, co-author and director

The tale of a long expedition like Tara Oceans (2009-2012) is virtually a saga, the type of narrative known in cinema as a ‘quest’. A long road full of adventures leading to the big picture - all in all quite comparable to scientific research!
This kind of series requires an introductory phase, where we discover the heroes, the boat, the sea, and of course plankton, the most important aspect of the quest.
The subject of the first film is the hidden world of phytoplankton and zooplankton. In the second film, we enter this realm and understand its organization. The third film explores how biology is at the origin of our Earth, its geology and chemistry. Quite amazing actually, how the story gets more and more powerful as it unfolds! Finally the last film is the ‘revelation’ (to go back to cinema terminology) -  where we ask questions about the role of mankind in all of this. The quest unfolds in some extraordinary places, often against a backdrop of difficult sailing conditions. We’re describing an odyssey!
 

See  LeMondeSecret.blogspot.com for practical information on sites and schedules of projections. (in French)

A series of 4 documentaries,  52 minutes each.
Director: Michael Pitiot, Authors: Michael Pitiot, Thierry Ragobert and Frédéric Lossignol
Assistant Director: Jean-Pierre Bailly. Co-production: MC4,  Fonds Tara, CNRS Images
With the participation of: La Commission Européenne/ DG Recherche,  France Télévisions, Planète Thalassa,  Ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement Durable, des Transports et du Logement, CNC