Lot-et-Garonnais videographer Bernard Lataste takes us to the Pyrenees

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Local agriculture, the floods of the Garonne, the Romestaing shepherd, Italian roots… The great passion of Bernard Latasteobviously, it is his terroir. Its history and its stories, and above all, its people.

Our correspondent (and friend) from Cocumont, former director of the village school, has also become a talented videographer.

His various documentaries have enjoyed great success, particularly here in Marmande, where the large hall of the Plaza cinema is systematically full for each screening of films by Lataste.

Next meeting on November 8, 2024 with the latest production by Bernard Lataste who, this time, went to film a transhumance in the Pyrenees. Exciting.

Transmission of knowledge

But why did Bernard Lataste go and film this operation last summer for just three days? “A friend has a second home near Saint-Lary,” says the Cocumontais filmmaker. And I love the mountains. It was this friend who told me about an extraordinary shepherd, and who advised me to meet him. He spoke to me about him as an emblematic character. I met him, and this is ultimately the angle of the transmission of knowledge that I took for this documentary. There, they are passionate, who want to keep the tradition, the knowledge.”

In Shepherds of Aure – Transhumance as a heritage, Bernard Lataste therefore films a summer transhumance of eight “small” breeders, who bring their herd into the mountains.

And among them, there is more precisely François and his little cousin, Laurent. Neither are professional shepherds, but the eldest passes on all his knowledge to the youngest, who despairs that the tradition could one day be lost.

“Certainly the end of pastoralism”

Transhumance therefore serves as a backdrop to this documentary which gives pride of place to the mountains and the landscapes it offers. And Bernard Lataste highlights these ancestral traditions which also bring these mountains to life, while not forgetting to also pass on some knowledge: why is the bell so important for the herd? And the importance of the moon? That of the walking stick?

With this one-hour documentary, we get to know the shepherds of yesterday and today, and some, including Laurent, are not very optimistic: “The know-how that we have, we are losing it. And then regulation is more and more difficult. Without forgetting the bear attacks every year, the big problem of tourists who come to walk with their dogs, and the wolf who will arrive. This is certainly the end of pastoralism.”

It is to defend it that Bernard Lataste has produced this new, unpublished documentary. A must see.

Screening of the documentary “Bergers d'Aure, transhumance in heritage”, Friday November 8, 2024 at 8:30 p.m. at the Plaza cinema, in partnership with the ATP. Reservations recommended, directly at the cinema.

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