From Community Storytelling to Home Television

In my film “The Invisible Mountain,” I explore the major changes that have carried us so quickly from one era to another. What have we left behind? Of course, there have been many benefits to this evolution. But what was lost while we believed we were gaining everything?
 
Marlène is a resident of Zinal. She came from the city in the 1967 and settled in these mountains to never leave. At the time, Zinal was only inhabited for a few months each year, when families from Anniviers would come up to cut hay. It was during those years that several couples chose to settle there year-round. Most of them were not originally from the valley, gradually forming a new village made up almost entirely of “amoïches”—the local term for people who came from elsewhere. Marlène and her husband were among the first of these new inhabitants of Zinal.
 
Among her most cherished memories, Marlène recalls the veillées. This word refers to the winter evenings, in the days of traditional life, when residents would gather in someone’s home to share stories, legends, and tales of daily life. Today, this way of coming together has disappeared. And yet, these moments of togetherness were essential: they allowed for the oral transmission of knowledge, values, and stories from one generation to the next.
 
The living culture of the community hasn't disappeared, but it's faded, it's less present than it used to be, gradually giving way to the culture of screens, which connects us to the whole world while disconnecting our individual universes from each other.