LES FILMS DES EXPEDITIONS
Nomade, Le Livre
INTERVIEWS
Eliott Schonfeld
Explorer • Writer • Film-maker
At 19 years old, by accident, I found myself alone in an Australian tropical forest for several days. During this time, I discovered exhaustion and hunger, but most importantly, the wilderness. Since this moment, I have never wanted to leave it and at 21 years old, I decided to become an explorer.
By foot, canoe, horseback, dog sledge, or raft, I spend months alone and living self-sufficiently in the remotest places on the planet. After Iceland and its glaciers; the Gobi Desert and constant thirst; Alaska and its magnificent grizzly bears; I hiked across the Himalayas for four months.
I see exploration as the desire to better understand nature, to inform on its destruction but above all to learn, once again, our place amongst it. A world without the possibility of exploration would be an empty world. Without sense, without life. As long as explorers are able to live their passion, there is still hope.
Youngest member of the Société des Explorateurs Français (French Explorer Society).
EXPEDITIONS
En 1968, un homme nommé Richard « Dick » Proenneke quitte la civilisation, déterminé à réaliser son rêve : revenir à la vie sauvage. À 51 ans, il s’enfonce en Alaska où il se construit une cabane au bord d’un des lacs les plus inaccessibles de la planète. Il vécut là trente ans, se nourrissant de pêche et de cueillette, avec pour seuls voisins les grizzlys, les caribous, les loups et les saumons. C’est cette cabane au bout du monde qu’a voulu retrouver Eliott Schonfeld, vingt ans après la mort de Dick Proenneke : bercé par les carnets du vieil homme, le jeune aventurier marche dans ses pas sur le territoire des Indiens Denai’na. Jour après jour, c’est un nouvel univers qu’il découvre : celui d’une nature extraordinaire, libre et abondante. À travers cette expérience hors du temps, émaillée d’ascensions vertigineuses, de rivières torrentielles, de face à face avec des grizzlys, il nous rappelle l’impérieuse nécessité de défendre ce patrimoine naturel inouï menacé par la folie des humains.
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After Mongolia and Alaska, I embarked on a four-month trek across the Himalayas alone, searching for the last nomads of this region. The aim of this odyssey was to accomplish something that I had until then been avoiding: finishing the expedition in total autonomy, without objects and equipment from a “modern” world which is destroying nature. With friction fire, an animal hide jacket, bamboo backpack, my horse by my side and camera at the ready, I - once again – managed to achieve this challenge!
After Mongolia and Alaska, I embarked on a four-month trek across the Himalayas alone, searching for the last nomads of this region. The aim of this odyssey was to accomplish something that I had until then been avoiding: finishing the expedition in total autonomy, without objects and equipment from a “modern” world which is destroying nature. With friction fire, an animal hide jacket, bamboo backpack, my horse by my side and camera at the ready, I - once again – managed to achieve this challenge!
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At 23 I had to survive by my own means. Most of the time I fed myself by gathering wild berries, mushrooms, plants and fishing. I drank and washed in rivers. I kept warm with fire made from wood found around me. I walked in the forest following small paths created by grizzlies, wolves and caribous. Above all, I had to understand the environment I was in in order to define my place amongst it, to ensure my safety against wild animals, climate and accident-prone terrain. I had to accept the laws of nature and submit myself to them.
THEY TALK ABOUT IT
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