AlimenTERRE Festival in Eure-et-Loir

AlimenTERRE Festival: Documentary Cinema for Sustainable Food

Every autumn, from mid-October to the end of November, the AlimenTERRE Festival takes place in the towns of Eure-et-Loir, offering a program of documentary film screenings dedicated to the issues of sustainable and solidarity-based food. This local branch of a national festival, coordinated by the Beauce-Dunois Territorial Food Project, makes Janville-en-Beauce and its surrounding towns a place for reflection and exchange on our food systems.

A National Festival Rooted in Territories

The AlimenTERRE Festival was created in 2007 by the French Committee for International Solidarity (CFSI). It has become the largest documentary film festival on food in France, unfolding in hundreds of towns across the country. In Eure-et-Loir, approximately eight screenings are organized between October and November in municipal halls, media libraries, and cultural spaces in the south of the department.

Documentary Films That Question Our Plates

Each year, a selection of documentary films addresses the multiple facets of food: peasant agriculture versus agribusiness, food sovereignty, short supply chains, the impact of climate change on agricultural production, food waste, nutrition and public health, fair trade, and access to quality food for all. The selected films tell human stories, often poignant, that illuminate global issues through concrete and local narratives.

Debates to Think and Act Together

Each screening is followed by a debate with the audience, led by specialized speakers: farmers, researchers, association activists, elected officials, and actors in the food transition. These discussions allow for extending the reflection sparked by the films, sharing local experiences, and considering concrete solutions. Participatory workshops on sustainable cooking, ecological gardening, or responsible consumption sometimes complement the program.

A Beauceron Territory in Transition

The festival's anchoring in the south of Eure-et-Loir, in the heart of the Beauce agricultural region, gives particular resonance to the questions raised by the films. Beauce, the "breadbasket of France," is at the center of debates on agricultural models, biodiversity, pesticide use, and the agroecological transition. The festival invites the inhabitants of this territory to reflect on their own relationship with food and agriculture, in a spirit of dialogue and benevolence.