A shepherd and a trail runner with a dog above the flock on a Champsaur alpage, Hautes-Alpes, France

In distribution · 2025

Nos Voisins Champsaurins

Name: Nos Voisins Champsaurins
Director: Clément Armand
Released: 2025
Duration: 66 min

Documentary · 66 min

Two brothers from Gap cross the Champsaur on foot, seven days from one end of the valley to the other. Along the way they stop with the people who keep it alive: farmers, a shepherd, a brewer, refuge keepers, hosts. Running was the pretext, and what gets said at their tables is the film.

66 min Runtime

7 days On foot

200 km Distance

12,000 m Elevation gain

The starting point

We were locals from the next valley, and strangers to the people in this one.

The year before, with Axel, we'd run a loop around the Champsaur along the ridges. We crossed paths with more wildlife than people. We grew up in the next valley over and have been coming here to ski and ride since we were kids. We'd never spent a night with anyone who actually lives in the valley year-round.

So we came back, this time from the inside, with curiosity, running shoes and a camera.

« On m'avait dit que ça ne marcherait pas, mais ça c'était les coopératives qui disaient ça. Et aujourd'hui je passe l'intégralité de ma production, tout en direct. »

Luc Pelissier · Sheep farmer, Ferme des Sonailles

Crossing the Champsaur valley on foot, ridgelines of the Hautes-Alpes massif

The route

Two hundred kilometers, built around the people we wanted to meet

200 kilometers. 12,000 meters of elevation. A traverse across the valley, one host per night. Each stop landed on their working day, which meant milking at four in the afternoon, a shepherd's cabin for the night, and a refuge keeper finishing his thirty-eighth season.

Axel had another deadline. He needed to get back to Lyon to enrol for the academic year. He wasn't enrolled yet.

A shepherd with binoculars and a runner on a Champsaur alpage

The people we met

Nobody we'd met before

A sheep farmer and his guard dogs. A shepherd who used to commute to a London office in a suit. A couple back from thirteen years in Quebec to run a guesthouse. A brewer set up in an old forge, working with barley from the valley's farms. An auberge in Prapic. A refuge keeper in his thirty-eighth season.

None of them knew us. By the end of each day it felt like we'd known them for years.

« Mon plus gros plaisir, ça a été quand mon fils m'a dit : je viens reprendre la ferme. Si on arrive à garder nos jeunes dans nos vallées, la vallée restera belle et elle aura de l'avenir. »

Fred Degril · Dairy farmer and ski instructor

On the way

Two runners on a ridge above a sea of clouds at sunrise, Champsaur

A rocky crag on the trail high above the Champsaur valley

A shepherd under an umbrella with his dog in the rain on the alpage

The flock crossing a Champsaur slope under a stormy sky

On the terrace of a mountain refuge at dusk, cliffs lit by the last sun

The dairy farmer at the afternoon milking

Breakfast at the guesthouse before the day's run

A runner on a rocky ridge above a glacial lake, Écrins massif

A high mountain refuge beside a lake, Écrins

Prayer flags in the wind outside a refuge

The brewer raising a glass in his brewery, friends behind him

Dinner by headlamp in a shepherd's cabin

Lunch at a table by the lake below the refuge

Watch Watch the film: Nos Voisins Champsaurins

Full film, 66 minutes. French audio.
Open on YouTube

Reception

First screening in Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur on 10 September. More than fifty people turned away at the door, so we programmed a second screening in the same room on 17 September. A third followed at the Cinémathèque d'Images de Montagne in Gap on 12 November, with a buffet of local produce. All three sold out.

Everyone who came up afterwards described a different film. The agricultural advisor returned to land use and direct sales. The cultural officer at the local commune was proud we'd mentioned the Canal de Malcros. Trail runners came for the route.

Sold-out cinema screenings

21€

YouTube CPM

46%

YouTube views on TV screens

35%

Views from shares on Facebook and WhatsApp

How we turn films like this into audience for brands

A high mountain refuge beside a waterfall in the Champsaur, Hautes-Alpes

Screenings

The film is already touring cinemas and village halls. Available for cinema screenings, festivals and private events, with a Q&A when we can be there. Get in touch for dates and projection format.

Request a screening

Credits

Direction & production Clément Armand

With Axel Armand

Mix Studio Melodio · Ugo Arielli

Supported by Office de Tourisme Champsaur Valgaudemar

In order of appearance

Fred Degril. Guillaume & Marjorie Barri (Maison l'Aiguille). Gaëtan Theveniaud. Bernard & Bianca. Luc Pelissier (Ferme des Sonailles). Le Chamois. Adam. Jonas (La Jabiore). Alex Bompard (La Prapicoise). Delphine & Fred Degril (L'Abondance). L'Auberge et Spa du Vieux Chaillol. Guillaume Waille (La Walpine). Teddy Nicolas (Ultrachampsaur). Flo. Stéphane Chevalier "Loulette" (Refuge du Tourrond). Valentin Gruit. Refuge du Vallonpierre.

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