Next weekend, Friday 10 and Saturday 11 March, there's a festival of amateur/semi-pro video, films, photos made by travellers, trekkers, adventurers, people with a dream or a passion for going to some particular place, meeting particular people, carrying out some particular intention -- and who, in almost all cases, will be there to introduce and discuss their journeys and the logs they made.

Countries that feature in this year's festival include India, Nepal, Canada, Qatar, Kuwait, Madagascar, Argentina, Peru, and China. Highlights are a Bombay film by Antoine de Maximy ("J'irai dormir chez vous"/"I'll sleep at your place" -- the author films himself meeting people of all social ranks and getting to know them, getting himself invited to have a meal or, if they will, to have him as a guest for a night); a report on a school in the Guangxi mountains in southern China (the school is financially aided by the festival); and a film by Jéromine Pasteur among the Ashaninkas in Peru, a Native American people of which she is an adopted member.

An exhibition by Michel le Berre features his photos of India and Nepal=========>>>>

We missed last year's Partances, but were delighted to be present at the first festival in 2004. This is a festival that concentrates attention and love on the earth and on humans. Interesting, technically well-run, and warm.

For anyone in the Toulouse area, it's worth thinking about. It takes place at the Altigone in St Orens, in the SE suburbs.