THE RIVER AT THE BOTTOM OF MY GARDEN (TRAILER) DIRECTED BY GUILLAUME MAZILLE (FRANCE)

Описание: Congratulations to

"The River At The Bottom Of My Garden"

September 2025

Awarded:
Best Documentary Feature
Best Cinematography

Touchstone IFF Featured Page: https://www.touchstoneindependentfilm...

Director - guillaume mazille
Writer - guillaume mazille
Writer - Alain Damasio
Writer - Jade Maitre
Producer - guillaume mazille

Overview:
In a paradisiacal river in Southern France, a world-travelled cinematographer stranded by Covid films a poetic and introspective movie in relationship with the animal life around his home. But soon, a drought imperils the river source, threatening the very existence of the animals he has grown to love. Will formidable power of life conquer?

Director Statement
The film was created in radically different conditions from conventional film productions, guided by deep ecological ethics and care for all living beings involved. Entirely self-produced over three years, the film was shot within a 100-meter radius of our home in Southern France — meaning no travel, no heavy infrastructure, and a carbon footprint close to zero.
This slow, immersive process — with over 750 days of shooting — allowed us to build genuine relationships with the wild animals around us. There was no pressure, no intrusion. All animals filmed were free and non-captive, living either near or on our property. Our approach was based on mutual respect and trust, which shines through in the images. Nothing was staged or forced; we simply observed and listened.
Because we were independent and not subject to industrial pressures or commercial deadlines, we could let the film grow naturally, in harmony with its subjects. There were no financiers demanding results at the expense of animal welfare — just a small team of nature-loving cinematographers working for a collective, non-profit goal.
Beyond the film itself, we took concrete action to support the ecosystem during the droughts of 2022 and 2023, creating a volunteer network to rescue fish and small wildlife in case of riverbed collapse. In parallel, we founded an off-grid elementary school for children aged 4–11, with a pedagogy rooted in the observation of nature.
This film is not an endpoint, but the visible tip of a much deeper life commitment — one that honours the wild, the slow, the unseen.


Director Biography - guillaume mazille
At 18, I set off to the other side of the world. Three years later, I returned with a photo series that would launch my professional career. ARTE dedicated a 15-episode documentary series to my work as a photographer.
In 2016, my wife and I founded an independent primary school centered around nature observation.
Last year, I fulfilled a childhood dream: entering and filming the Chauvet Cave, in partnership with the French Ministry of Culture and France Télévisions.

It all started with a misunderstanding. At the end of my marine biology studies, I realized I’d never get a grant to finish my thesis. Funding was awarded to the top two students, and I… was in the bottom two. Damned. A brutal end to my academic career.
Looking back, photography suits me better. I’d rather show beauty than dissect it. I prefer the click of my camera to Excel spreadsheets, and sharing my photos to filling endless forms no one will ever read.
At 20, the encounter that changed everything: Virgule, a humpback whale calf born in the waters of Polynesia. I spent seven hours a day with him in the ocean for several months. Wrinkled skin, blue lips, endless dives and near-syncope resurgences for breath. What began as a surreal collision turned into curiosity, then a strange bond with this extraordinary animal — the starting point of my professional career.
Before that, there were orcas. I passed my high school finals with one reward in mind: a plane ticket to Quebec to live my own into the wild story. I remember a faded poster of an orca above a gas station counter near Ottawa, and this urge to cross the country to swim with one. Fifteen days, 4,000 kilometers, on foot, hitchhiking, or stowed away on freight trains. In my ears, Jim Morrison whispering over and over: “West is the best.” Then a kayak, British Columbia’s fjords, a mask, fins — and my first underwater encounter with the “panda of the sea.”
Why wildlife photography? At first, out of shyness. Fear of people. Then, out of love — for everything unshaped by human hands. My bicycle became a sacred ritual to escape, and in my backpack, my dad’s old Canon — witness to my wild odysseys beyond the edges of the suburbs.
What’s my thing? Life — in all its forms — with a soft spot for cetaceans. Why? Probably for comfort.
April 15, 1982. I’m two years old. My first day of school. Ordinary violence. Unconsolable in that huge classroom, Mado the teacher gives me a “good behavior” card to cheer me up: small, white background, blue border, and in the center… a smiling whale.
We are who we are.

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