“There is no country but childhood's” said Roland Barthes in a lovely text simply entitled "The Light of the South Wes"t. This region that he had chosen from them all, Urt on the banks of the Adour, the village sheltering his mother’s house. He would often come here to rediscover his pleasure in writing: “The pleasure of these mornings in U.: the sun, the house, the roses, the silence, the music, the coffee, the work, the a-sexual calm, a break from aggressions.” It is here that he now rests in the same grave, close to the maternal breast.

Barthes*

French filmmakers Cedric Laty and Vincent Gerard chronicle the life of lensman William Eggleston, emerging with an artful documentary as much about the man as it is about the everyday places in the American South that he encapsulates, and transforms, in his work. Considered a pioneer of color photography, Eggleston is known for seeing the beautiful in the mundane, and the film captures the essence of his vision.

By the Ways, a Journey with William Eggleston

A strange ethnologist lands in Pernand-Vergelesses, a wine-producing village, to carry out a survey of its population. An easy-going and impertinent man, Tom Joad will then relentlessly criss-cross the village and meet all its inhabitants. Not only does he dwell upon questions of wine-making tradition as well as the ins and outs of village life, its fragile balance and what is in store for it, but also upon the imaginary, both personal and collective of the villagers. By doing so, the stranger who borrows his name from the Steinbeck character who won't accept fate will try to rebuild a now disappearing public space. The film tells the tale of his adventure.