Grand Feu / High Fire. Survie d’une tradition / Survival of a tradition - ACE137.2

Map of France showing Puisaye. Travelling shot along country road. Road sign for St Amand en Puisaye, Burgundy. Buildings and an earlier photograph showing how little has changed over many years. Signs for pottery manufacturers. Town centre, potter’s yard, young man building wooden frame kiln. He is shown old photographs, and identifies one place as belonging to an old potter called Raymond Gaubier who retired in the 1960s. Another man recognises photographs of his father, born 1867, and his sister; he identifies various activities shown in the pictures and points out where they took place. The man talks about throwing a large pot. More photographs of the pottery buildings and men at work. Film of comparable activities today. Man talks about his great-grandfather (died 1867), and all his family; each generation from 1549 having produced a few potters. He shows pits in the surrounding forest where his family dug their clay, and reads part of a legal document granting rights for clay gathering. Caption: "La Millotterie kiln; built 1787, last fired 1940." Modern pottery with pupil under instruction. Evening scenes in Puisaye.