Home Page	VILLAGE WITNESS Sojourn in a Forgotten Fortress [Village Temoin: Séjour dans une Forteresse Oubliée] This Docufilm was filmed entirely in the South of France in the small provençal village of Séguret. There will be one more stage of shooting to take place there before the film is complete, though as for the village itself nothing will ever really change - the women still wash their clothes at the fountain, and the clock in the square with only one hand gazes down, now as ever, with no care for the minutes as the centuries pass by. - More Details provided below. Return to the Living Time® Docufilms™ Main Page	Contact Us
	One Stone Archway into the Village of Séguret in Provence More About 'Village Witness' This film takes as its focus a remote and forgotten village in the heart of the South of France, at the centre of that proverbial heaven named "Provence". It was in 1997 that the maker of this film journeyed to the village of Séguret in order to understand more about what it really is, what makes it so special to visit and what it is that entrances the mind forever after. He was not sure if it was the roseate hue of the memories of youth which had rendered it so idyllic in his mind's eye or whether it would still retain the same dimensions as he had known it to have when a young boy. This film is the story of that visit and of the attraction that has led the film-maker to return to this place again and again. It is probably not unlike many other villages of the same period (12th Century or so - at this stage it was already a mature village) but in contrast to the city life of the film-maker it could not be in more stark contrast to the environment of London. Not only do the women still wash their laundry in the water fountain at the centre of the village, but the clock-tower that watches its sleeping villagers only takes one hand to tell the time - don't the minutes matter here? All the beauty and fascination of the village and the surround- ing region is captured in the film, though it is not of the nature of a travelogue or a tourist video. It is an investigation. The film takes as its central focus the historian of the village, Christian Hérail, who has studied the village for over twenty years and has published several books about its origins and history. The position of the village in the "Comtat" of its time and the way in which it developed over the years and reacted to the events of the outside world (above all the "French Revo- lution") are interweaved into the voiceover of this film, showing how locations in the village relate to events of the past. Some survey is actually made of historical documents that enlighten the mystery of the place. For this purpose the film also takes us to Historical Archives in Paris, Avignon, Carpentras and other nearby locations. One particular point of interest is the tower at the top of the hill on which the village resides, adding even more to the fortress-like appearance of the whole place.