Written by Sara Baptista de Sousa
Happiness
There is nothing better to celebrate the holidays and the begin of a new year with a look for the project 7 billion others, by Yann Arthus-Betrand. This project unites the world through the same things that unites – love, fear, dreams, life, death. A storyline created by each individual, from different cultures, about what it means to be human.
7 billion others was created in 2003 by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, with Sybille d’Orgeval and Baptiste Rouget-Luchaire. There were made 6.000 interviews, filmed in 84 different countries by more than twenty film directors who in in search “for the Others”. “From a Brazilian fisherman to a Chinese shopkeeper, from a German performer to an Afghan farmer, all answered the same questions about their fears, dreams, ordeals, hopes: What have you learnt from your parents? What do you want to pass on to your children? What difficult circumstances have you been through? What does love mean to you?”. This was the premise.
According to Yann Arthus-Betrand, everything began “with a helicopter breakdown in Mali. While I was waiting for the pilot, I spent a whole day talking with one of the villagers. He spoke to me about his daily life, his hopes and fears: his sole ambition was to feed his children. I suddenly found myself plunged into the most elemental of concerns. He looked me straight in the eyes, uncomplaining, asking for nothing, expressing no resentment or ill will”, he says.
Meaning of life
There are more than seven billion of us on Earth and this is what makes the project a very interesting one. It created a portrait of a world, of humanity, showing everything that unites us, links and differentiates us. We see different people from different countries, expressing their deepest fears and their highest hopes, their loves stories and their life stories.
Love
Differences
7 billion others was presented in exhibition in France, Belgium, Brazil, Italy, Russia, and many more, being already released in DVD, book and they were on television.
“For in struggles to come, whether it is the struggle against poverty or climate change, we cannot act on our own. The times in which one could think only of oneself or of one’s own small community are over. From now on, we cannot ignore what it is that links us and the responsibilities that this implies.” These are testimonies of a world, united by the same ideals and pursuing the same happiness and goals that we. In a new year, we should stop a moment to acknowledge the people that surrounds us, and find out what makes us so different and yet so equal.
http://www.7billionothers.org/
