14. Winegrowers for Life (movie & debate)

PROJECTION of the Winegrowers for Life movie

52-minute documentary film directed by Julien Touzaint

In the documentary film "Les Vignerons du Vivant," young people in great difficulty embark on a new adventure: becoming winemakers.

In 2018, fifteen wine estates in the Médoc region joined together in the collective Les Vignerons du Vivant to train young people in the vineyard trades. Fifteen candidates were selected to learn the basics of working in a vineyard by applying agroecology techniques so that they would prepare themselves "for the needs of tomorrow and not for the jobs of yesterday." Between pruning, ploughing and harvesting, they alternate theoretical sessions and practical work in the field, with trainers accompanying them to complete their learning.

The film follows four of them throughout their course to become winegrowers, in the vineyards, during training periods and in their daily lives. This heartfelt and poetic lesson offers another approach to integration, and the life can be the source. Come and meet and interview the protagonists of the film after the screening!

Apprentis d'Auteuil is a catholic foundation recognized as being of public utility which welcomes, trains and reintegrates more than 30,000 young people (from 1 month to 30 years old) in difficulty in France; it develops a training program called Skola in sectors where there is a shortage of manpower.

"Winegrowers for Life" is one of these training-integration programs that allows young people (40% of whom are girls) between the ages of 18 and 30, who are far from employment, to prepare themselves for the vineyard profession by favouring a pesticide-free culture that respects life in all its forms and the natural renewal of the soil through agroforestry, agroecology and biodynamic techniques.

In groups of 15 people, during one year they will visit properties of all sizes, meet numerous professionals and experts and learn different viticultural practices and will be personally accompanied to solve one by one their external obstacles (problems of housing, mobility, solve the precariousness...).

Since the beginning of this training, 74 young people have been accompanied; 70% of them have obtained their diploma and 65% have been integrated into the workforce. This project is a winner of the "Call for 100% inclusion", it contributes to the Vitirev action plan and also benefits from the financial support of Pole emploi, Ocapiat, the Carrefour foundation, Neuflize banques privées and the châteaux partners.

The film " Winegrowers for Life " is a portrait of 4 young people who joined this training program in December 2020; it tells us about their career paths, their difficulties and doubts and their vision of this profession in a context of covid.

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