The ecological, economic and social challenges we face at the start of the 21st century urge us to adopt a new way of looking at the world. They may arouse fear or a feeling of helplessness, but they also give birth to new desires and creativity: a desire to change, to produce better, to live differently and to learn to share.

« When I started my combat as an ecologist, I would never have believed that the movement would finally lead to a step change in our civilization. Today, like many others, that seems evident to me. This is the message and the questions I want to disseminate ». Following on from his film HOME, Yann Arthus-Bertrand is keen to share the facts of our time and the beauty of the world with as many people as possible to raise the awareness and sense of responsibility of every individual. Drawing on the experience of 6 billion Others, he wants to produce a film focusing on human beings. « 6 billion Others made me realize the impact of intelligence and human diversity. I want to go out and record words that touch people and help bring about change ». In HUMAN, his new film, Yann Arthus-Bertrand seeks to share with us the two-fold beauty of the world and its people. Like HOME, HUMAN will transport us to the most symbolic places in a world on the cusp of something that is ending and something that is being born.

Like 6 billion Others, HUMAN will bear witness to the words of human beings, creating a bridge towards constructive reflection on what we have in common and what makes us different. The essential values we all share, the points of view and experiences that are so different – this is what makes us rich. Through this dual viewpoint - faces of the Earth, faces of people - HUMAN takes us on a journey from the profound intimacy of the human being to the grandiose beauty of Nature and the world.

IN THE WAKE OF HOME

At the initiative of its producers Luc Besson and Denis Carot and its director, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, and with the support of France Télévisions, HOME was the first film in a new genre. From the outset, it was intended to be shown free of charge on all media - in movie theaters, on television, on the web, on DVD, etc. HUMAN will be distributed in the same way.

Like HOME, HUMAN will be written by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Isabelle Delannoy. It will be produced by Hope Productions, a not-for-profit production company. HOME was produced to be viewed by all, everywhere, whether they live in a rich or a poor country, whether they come from a scientific or economic background or have had no formal education. HUMAN has the same ambition.

Two years down the line, HOME has been seen by 500 million viewers (including 30 million on Youtube), translated into 40 languages and shown in over 130 countries. HOME is now part of the world's audiovisual landscape – indeed, it was recently ranked the best documentary on the Earth. We continue to receive requests to show the film. Thanks to its appropriation by the public, the project ge­nerates its own momentum. Indeed, the public is the most important and the most effective vector of dis­semination. Thanks primarily to spontaneous, free projections, the film travels throughout the world – from Uzbekistan to China, from Germany to Israel. HOME has succeeded in speaking to and touching its public, its viewers, who, in their turn, feel a duty to pass it on to others.

WE WANT THE SAME DESTINY FOR HUMAN

HUMAN : capitalizing on the success and credibility of HOME. We note that Yann Arthus-Bertrand, already known beyond our borders, has even stronger, more global recognition today thanks to HOME. In the USA, for instance, after the initial event organized around the film in 2011, more than 80 showings were ar­ranged in universities and festivals. It will soon be shown at the Boston MIT and once again in New York – this time in an outdoor screening. In the month of June 2011 alone, HOME was shown in Italy, the USA, Austria, Spain, Mo­rocco, Iceland, Poland, Mexico, the UK, France and Russia.

HOME is the first ever non-profit fea­ture-length film – a unique status that was at first an obstacle to its launch and is now, finally, a strength. HOME is our story and everybody should be able to see it – indeed, the public, television stations and even movie theaters have understood this. HOME propelled France 2 to its best-ever audience score, with 9 million viewers – unheard-of success for a documentary film! The big public channels are already taking an interest in the next film. We have received requests from France Télé, PBS (USA), NJK –Japan), KBS (Korea), Globo (Brazil) and the BBC (UK). Even before the blue­print for a second feature-length documentary has been finalized, its audience is waiting for it.

IN THE SAME SPIRIT AS SIX BILLION OTHERS

HUMAN informs, HUMAN observes, HUMAN questions, HUMAN raises awareness. Against a backdrop of dazzling images, infor­mation from hundreds of ecological, social, economic and historical reports is being com­piled, linked up and harmonized. But HUMAN is much more than that. Like 6 billion Others, Human goes to the heart of what it means to be human.

For the 6 billion Others project, 6,000 video in­terviews were gathered in 84 countries by reporters who went out to meet these thou­sands of Others, asking them all the same fundamental questions about their lives. HUMAN will rely on this experience to go forth and capture the voice of humanity.

HUMAN will be the echo of the universal questions that bring us together and form the essential bases of our shared existence. It will help us discover what separates and what binds us.

The 6 billion Others exhibition, inaugurated in Paris in January 2009, is now travelling around the world.

HUMAN wants to capture its quintessence and reproduce this planetary success in another way.

FOR EVERYONE EVERYWHERE

In this new film, Yann Arthus-Bertrand calls on us to build a future with a future, avoiding blind alleys and dead ends. HUMAN addresses everyone, everywhere. It is free and copyright-free. It sees humanity as one, the Earth as a single entity, and living things as unique. It presents a lucid account of our history. Although our species has been capable of the worst to amass riches, it has also been capable of the best, thanks to a deep-seated faith in the future of humanity. When human beings act for justice, generosity, fraternity and freedom, they embody this force that HUMAN calls for and in which it believes.

HUMAN puts this great turning point in our history into perspective as a way of understanding it better. It takes us to those symbolic places where the history of humanity is still engraved. It goes out to meet men and women, whatever their origin, condition, commitments and beliefs, and gathers their words. HUMAN seeks to understand these generations of human beings that we represent and who must act, over and above our differences and personal interests. HUMAN seeks to make us love our century.

For Yann Arthus-Bertrand, beauty opens our minds to awareness and information. It helps preserve what is dear to us. Beauty allows us not to turn away even when we are shown the unbearable. It speaks to the heart. It is recognizable to all. It is the cement that unites us. HUMAN, like all the works of Yann Arthus-Bertrand, will be marked by beauty and the search for the universal.

HUMAN calls for constructive revolt: revolt against the inertia of a system whose ravages we can no longer continue to observe as impotent spectators; constructive, because it mobilizes our creative energies so that we can transform our destiny, together. It calls on every individual, every organization, every nation to commit to a new civilization – ecological, human and generous.