Film d'en Haut - Return to Mont Aiguille

Thursday, March 20 | 8:30 pm
-Return to Mont Aiguille :

In 1492, Captain Antoine de Ville de Domjulien climbed the "inaccessible mountain" on the orders of King Charles VIII. Why would a king want to take on a mountain? How could such an undertaking be accomplished?

The Mont Aiguille - Carmo - Corps armé en montagne project aims to understand the relationship that ancient societies had with verticality, in particular through the political uses and military knowledge of mountains during the Renaissance.

Using experimental archaeology, we're reconstructing vanished equipment - in this case, 15th-century assault ladders - in order to rediscover their contextualized uses by restoring their actual conditions of use: "climbing" proper, at least as it was practiced in the 15th century.

The 40-minute documentary film directed by Ludovic Veltz allows us to follow the progress of the scientific project from start to finish, in particular the work of the historian, from the archival source to experimentation both in the laboratory for biomechanical tests and in the wild on Mont Aiguille. It recounts the researcher's trial and error, and the slow work of informing and working with local players: craftsmen, enthusiasts, schoolchildren, elected representatives...

The use of drones and photogrammetry has enabled us to produce a 3D model of Mont Aiguille, visually recreating the ascent as it may have taken place in 1492, while providing an immersive experience for the viewer.

Ludovic VELTZ (DIRECTOR) AND Stéphane GAL (RESEARCHER) will be present.