The vagaries of the calendar
Terres Extremes – doc 52 mn – France 5
Sometimes, chance and life’s opportunities coincide in a single point! This week, it’s Guatemala… 4 years ago to the day, we were for the first time in our lives on the set of a documentary for France 5 in Guatemala and Costa Rica. It was an intense shoot, both in terms of conditions and emotions, and we still have fond memories of it. The program was called Terres Extrêmes and lived up to its name.
Glaciologist Heidi Sevestre travelled through the rainforests of Guatemala and Costa Rica to meet scientists working to protect these green paradises. Then, with local scientific teams, she set off to collect venomous snakes to make anti-venom, and explore the Mayan remains of the spectacular Tikal site…
Mayan evocations
4 years later, we’re back on the big shoot in Guatemala… a docu-drama about the Mayan civilization.
Long preparation work to coordinate the creation of sets, objects, ceramics, clothing… not forgetting the management of the various castings. In all, some forty people are working on this superb project.
The Maya were an ancient civilization occupying a territory that today corresponds to southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and El Salvador. This traditional culture was renowned for its great advances in agriculture, astronomy, art, architecture and mathematics. Along with the Incas and Aztecs, it is one of the most important pre-Columbian civilizations in Latin America. At its peak, between 600 and 800 CE, the population was close to 10 million. Cities such as Tikal (Guatemala) could accommodate up to 70,000 inhabitants.
The most emblematic archaeological sites of this civilization are Tikal, El Mirador (Guatemala), Chichén Itza, Tulum, Palenque, Uxmal and Calakmul (Mexico).
Trains like no other – France 5
3rd calendar coincidence, the documentary we filmed in Guatemala in November 2021 will just happen to be broadcast this Thursday, July 07, 2022 on France 5 at 9 pm. For the 12ᵉ consecutive season, globe-trotter Philippe Gougler travels the world by train as much as possible… But not just any train! Unusual, improbable trains, lost in the middle of nowhere… often the word « train » can be summed up as an improvised means of transport mounted on rails…
So this 12th season begins in Guatemala… a country where trains are so rare that when one does run, it’s a party!
