Michel Marlétaz, Cooper 1988

Directed by Jacqueline Veuve

Michel Marlétaz lives in Les Echenards, a seven-person hamlet without an access road. After a bad car accident left him injured, he had to find a new livelihood, and so he learned the cooper's trade in classes set up for mountain farmers. He now makes his living from the manufacture of small wooden ware, like pots, spoons, butter churns, buckets, and milking pails. Marlétaz is the only cooper left who knows how to make the large butter churns used in the high Summer pastures. In November, he cuts the wood he will need - elm, spruce, cherry wood - then, during the Winter season, he makes the pieces he will deliver in the Summer.