Relationships Shape the World.

Through my films, I try to understand the relationships that shape both human societies and the living world, and give them a tangible form.

I never begin with a subject. I begin with a question.

With a background in sociology, I have always been fascinated by the relationships that connect living beings, communities, societies and the environments they inhabit. Behind the apparent diversity of my films lies the same pursuit: understanding how individual interactions give rise to collective phenomena, how systems emerge, evolve, find balance, or sometimes fall apart.

This search has taken me from the Amazon rainforest to the Greenland ice sheet, from the deserts of Africa to coral reefs, scientific laboratories and contemporary cities. I do not travel in search of remote places. I go where certain relationships become visible, where the field itself reveals something fundamental about the way the world works.

My films are built around shifts in scale. I move from a gesture to a landscape, from an individual to a collective, from an ant to a metropolis, revealing how intimate stories are connected to larger ecological, social and cultural systems. I am interested in the invisible threads that bind these different scales together.

I believe that many of today’s challenges can only be understood by connecting disciplines rather than separating them. Sociology meets ecology, biology meets anthropology, animal behaviour echoes human organisation. The boundaries between these worlds matter less to me than the relationships that unite them.

For me, documentary filmmaking is both a form of exploration and a language. Every film begins as an investigation, grounded in observation, immersion and encounter. My ambition is never to illustrate an idea, but to transform complex realities into experiences that can be seen, felt and shared. I hope each story opens a window onto something larger than itself.

For more than fifteen years, this approach has led me to write and direct over thirty documentaries broadcast by ARTE, France Télévisions and CANAL+, while also working as a cinematographer on a number of creative documentary projects.

CV: www.linkedin.com/in/nargillet

Selections & Awards

As Director

• Varado – The Curse of Gold (2023)
  — Étoile de la SCAM (Société Civile des Auteurs Multimédia)
  — Grand Jury Prize, FIFAC (Festival International du Film Amazonien et Caribéen)
  — Selected at Hot Docs Forum (2021)

• Cirque Hors Piste (2016)
  — Culture Award, Lauriers de la Télévision (2018)
  — Official selections: Alès Cinema Festival, Spring Festival, Transfilmnacht Festival

As Director of Photography

• Un silence si bruyant (2023), dir. Emmanuelle Béart & Anastasia Mikova
  Official selections :
  – FIPADOC 2024 (France)
  – Hot Docs 2024 (Canada, The Changing Face of Europe)
  – Shanghai TV Festival 2024
  – Otranto Film Festival 2024 (Italy)
  – Torino Film Festival 2024 (Zibaldone section)
  – Festival CINEMANIA 2023 (Canada)
  – Festival FEMMES ! 2024 (France)

• L’Étau (short film)
  — Official selection, Amiens International Film Festival