QIVITOK

Le Royal, Biarritz

Friday, November 8, 2024 - 20:30

Le Royal, Biarritz

Friday, November 8, 2024 - 20:30

Mathieu Crepel and Around The Waves present the world premiere of the film

QIVITOK

A return to Greenland 30 years later for Mathieu Crepel, “Where it all began”.

Screening in the presence of Mathieu and members of the film crew!

the film

QIVITOK

2024 – France

61 minutes – VOSTFR

Trailer : https://youtu.be/IqTwrN-nPEM?si=qunwEFO4WExAXwJa

Directed by Walid Berrissoul and Mathieu Crépel

Produced by L'Endroit Films in coproduction with Water Quest

30 YEARS LATER, MATHIEU CREPEL RETURNS TO GREENLAND:

“WHERE IT ALL BEGAN"

The French snowboarding legend has returned to the village where the film that put him on the map when he was 10 was shot.

“Qivitoq”, a powerful documentary directed by Walid Berrissoul tells the story of his rediscovery - through the eyes of an adult - of this place on the edge of the world, struck by a harsh social reality.

Fans of snowboarding in the 90s will remember ‘Kallaallit Nunaat’, a famous film about snowboarding shot in Greenland, a first for the sport at the time. These same fans will also remember this 10-year-old boy racing alongside the legends of the time on the snowy faces or in the middle of the village streets. His trajectories and his commitment to his board contrasted with his obvious shyness in front of the Inuit of his age whom he met in the streets of the village of Tasiilaq.

A native of Tarbes, Mathieu Crepel had, at the time, been sponsored by a famous specialist equipment manufacturer, which took him on board for this unusual expedition and filming.

The film helped launch the career of the young snowboarder, who would go on to become a four-time world champion in the discipline.

Throughout his career, Mathieu has never stopped thinking about this trip and, with the benefit of hindsight, he began to see what his childhood vision had concealed: the isolation and harsh social reality of the inhabitants of this village which, plagued by alcoholism, domestic violence and a mass exodus, holds the sinister record for the highest suicide rate in the world...

He had to go back.

So he went back.

Accompanied by the great reporter and director Walid Berrissoul and a trained film crew, Mathieu returned to Tasiilaq last March.

This almost month-long immersion enabled him to meet up with some of the children from the movie and try to understand how these people are facing the modern world and climate change.

It was also an opportunity to explore the landscape and this unique snowboarding terrain for days on end.

It was a way of confronting his memories with present-day reality and finally reconnecting with a past that had never left him.