THE DOCUMENTARY
Henri Le Saux
50 years later
Le Passeur
The project
The interest shown in the films and interviews associated with the Rencontres Henri Le Saux, Le Passeur gave impetus to the creation of a new documentary dedicated to Henri Le Saux. Through the testimony of personalities met in France and India, contemplatives, theologians or other spiritual seekers, the film apprehends in Christian and Hindu contexts the perspectives of the legacy of the Benedictine monk who became Swami Abhishiktananda, 50 years after his death.
The pitch
A major mystic of the 20th century, Dom Henri Le Saux (1910-1973) opened new spiritual horizons in his radical immersion into the mystery of the Upanishads. How does his pioneering adventure from the Abbey of Kergonan to the sources of the Ganges inspire our era, 50 years after his death? Encounters beyond religious boundaries in Christian and Hindu lands.
The director
After ten years of collaboration with ARTE's cultural magazine Metropolis, Vincent Lauth devotes himself exclusively to long-format documentaries. He addresses spiritual, artistic and humanitarian themes. Familiar with India, he shot a few films there such as Full Moon, H222 and the traveling cubes, Impossible as possible or even In the land of Christian ashrams for which he comes into contact with the world of Henri Le Saux by going in particular to Shantivanam and Tiruvannamalai.
Crowdfunding The film needs your support
The production of a documentary is a long-term work that is built over several months in different chronological stages, sometimes overlapping each other, with a preparation phase to begin with, including research and consultation of documents, interviews, location scouting and all the elements that will feed into the writing of the project, which constitutes a stage in itself. Then come the technical phases with filming and post-production. As a guide, we consider that we edit about 2 useful minutes per day. In addition to the image editing, there is the development of the soundtrack, including the search for music with, sometimes the creation of original music, then comes what we can call the dressing and final operations (special effects, titling, calibration, mixing).
The average budget for a 26-minute documentary created under professional conditions is estimated at between €60,000 and €75,000 spread over different items covering the stages described above (equipment, logistics, technical services, professional skills, copyrights and administrative costs). Given the context in which this project is taking place, a low-cost provisional budget of €30,000 is envisaged, with a part of crowdfunding estimated at this stage at €10,000. This share may be revised depending on the progress of the project, thanks to the flexibility of the Helloasso crowdfunding platform which allows the objectives to be adjusted over time. On the other hand, unlike other platforms, Helloasso does not charge any commission, each donor is free to make a donation if they wish.
The crowdfunding is managed by the association Les amis du Centre which has already managed the organization of the Rencontres Henri Le Saux, Le Passeur and is continuing its support approach here.
The counterparts usually proposed in crowdfundings are here collective by offering free access for all audiences to the documentary on the Henri Le Saux TV web channel. Your contribution demonstrates your commitment to the dissemination of Henri Le Saux's legacy. Thank you so much for your generosity, essential to the success of this project.