WHERE LIFE STILL HOLDS ON
A DOCUMENTARY BIKE JOURNEY THROUGH THE HEART OF LIFE
Alexandre Freteau, a wildlife photographer, and Romain Guilbert, a French filmmaker, employ a documentary approach rooted in long-term perspective and a deep appreciation for living things. Their approach is based on a deliberate slowness, not as a constraint, but as an essential condition for observing, listening to, and understanding territories and ecosystems.
Rather than traversing spaces, their work consists of approaching them, accepting their rhythms, silences, and sometimes resistances. This stance reveals realities of life that can only be perceived by those who take the time to slow down.
With the Last Refuges project, a central question guides the approach: what is a last refuge today? A space still preserved, a fragile balance between species, landscapes and human uses, or a place protected by the daily commitment of those who know and defend it?
The project is primarily documentary in nature, open and exploratory. It connects, by bicycle, on foot, and by boat, several national parks and protected areas in the Americas, emphasizing immersion, observation, and encounters. Filming, photographing, and writing are all part of the same movement: being present without detachment, leaving room for doubt, the unexpected, and what eludes us.
The Last Refuges project is thus conceived as a long-term, sensitive investigation and an invitation to collectively examine what it means to protect life today, as well as the multiple forms this protection can take. The website and its accompanying projects are part of this dynamic of openness, dialogue, and co-creation with those who safeguard these territories.
THE DOCUMENTARY FILM
A DOCUMENTARY APPROACH AT THE HEART OF PROTECTED AREAS
The Last Refuges will take the form of a feature-length documentary film, born
of a cycling trip through the protected territories of the Americas.
This crossing is neither a feat nor a backdrop. It constitutes the very structure of the film:
a way of entering territories slowly and creating the conditions for
encounter.
The gradual movement and continuity of the journey establish a partial relationship
They are specific to time. They allow for immersion, encourage listening, and give the narrative its
coherence. The adventure becomes a discreet narrative thread, serving observation and
transmission.
Designed for wide distribution, the film will follow a structured path
presentation at international festivals, distribution in cinemas, on platforms, in order to reach a wider audience in France and internationally.
Fundamentally, the film articulates three dimensions:
→ protected areas and the ecosystems they contain
→ the women and men committed to their preservation
→ field experience, lived at a slow pace, as a way of making these realities
accessible and shareable.
Without seeking spectacle, the film favors a sensitive and respectful approach.
killer, attentive to long periods of time, to silences and to the fragile balances of life.
THE DOCUMENTARY SERIES
UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENT FACES OF WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES
Conceived as a direct extension of the film, the documentary series The Last Refuges is aimed at a wider and more diverse audience. It is built as the fieldwork progresses, written and shaped at the pace of the expedition.
Each episode is conceived as a self-contained report, focused on a territory, an issue, or a form of refuge. Together, the episodes form a coherent series, structured by an introduction and a conclusion, where each narrative engages in dialogue with the others.
The series explores, in an accessible way, the major themes related to the geographies traversed are: melting glaciers, decline of primary forests, fragmentation of habitats, human pressures on ecosystems, but also the local responses put in place to deal with them.
It places a central focus on discussions and interviews, giving a voice to park staff, scientists, researchers, local stakeholders, and communities. The aim is to understand what types of refuges exist today, how they are maintained, and through what initiatives. Beyond simply observing the current situation, the series seeks to offer concrete solutions. It provides insights to better understand how these refuges function, why some are struggling, and how it is possible to take action, at different levels, to contribute to their preservation.
Through its format and rhythm, the series becomes a tool for transmission and sharing, designed to accompany the public in a progressive and embodied understanding of the last refuges of life.
THE PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES
PORTRAIT OF THE LIVING WORLD
Photography occupies a unique place within the project The Last Refuges.
Where film and series construct a narrative, photography offers a moment of stillness. A space for observation where life is neither explained nor commented on, but simply approached.
This photographic work focuses on what often escapes the moving image: the discretion, the waiting, the fragility of a presence. It does not seek the event, but the subtle signs of a possible coexistence between a territory and the species that inhabit it.
Photographing wildlife in a refuge requires a particular approach. Accepting that encounters cannot be forced. Respecting distances. Working with absence as much as with presence. Each image is born from a long period of time, from patient attention to natural rhythms, to light, to the seasons, to behaviors.
Photography thus becomes a tool for contemplation and silent transmission. It allows us to perceive life differently, without discourse or mediation, leaving the gaze free to linger, to question, to feel.
Complementing the film and documentary series, this photographic approach offers a different interpretation of the refuges encountered. It invites us to consider these territories not as spectacular spaces, but as delicate balances, where every presence counts, and where the essential often takes place at the margins of the visible.
