From Friday June 26 to Sunday June 28, 2026, the Les Premiers Jours d’Eté festival will hold its third edition in the heart of the town of Saint-Lô-d’Ourville, in Port-Bail-sur-Mer, in La Manche. Documentaries, short films, meetings with filmmakers, workshops for young people, concerts and cabaret will make up three days of cinema and conviviality on a human scale.
For three days, the films slide into the theaters, under the marquees and among the inhabitants of a town in Cotentin. The spectators of The First Days of Summergo from a screening to a concert, from a historical documentary to a fantastic short film, from a debate with a director to a shared drink at Bar’Roc.
Created in 2023, this micro-festival of documentaries and short films boasts a strong territorial anchor without being locked into an exclusively regional program. Norman works rub shoulders with films from the rest of France and abroad, with the same ambition: to show stories capable of questioning the present, of transmitting memories, of shifting perspectives or, more simply, of bringing audiences together.
A film festival in the heart of a Cotentin village
For this third edition, the screenings will be distributed between the Émile-Jeanne room, the red marquee et the blue marquee. Two small free rooms will also broadcast short formats on the festival site.
This organization contributes to the particular identity of the First Days of Summer. The festival does not just present a succession of sessions: it temporarily transforms the center of the village into a common space. The screenings are followed, when possible, by an exchange with the directors. Open-air concerts, a refreshment bar, on-site catering and several activities continue the discussions well after the films have finished.
The event thus seeks to bring audiences together between auteur cinema, regional creation and popular forms. Residents, visitors, film professionals, families and young spectators are invited to meet without the sometimes intimidating ceremony of major cinema events.
Born from the ruinsfilmed memory of the Norman reconstruction
The festival will open Friday evening with Born from the ruinsdocumentary by Stéphane Miquel and Marc Pottier. The film brings together images shot between 1945 and 1960 by several dozen Normans, in the aftermath of the destruction of the Second World War.
These amateur archives do not only show gutted cities, construction sites and reconstructed buildings. They tell the story of how a population tries to relearn how to live after the disaster. Behind the raised stones appear festivals, family gestures, leisure activities and the collective desire to re-enchant a territory lastingly marked by war.
By choosing this documentary as the opening film, Les Premiers Jours d’Été immediately places the 2026 edition under the sign of living memory: a memory which is not reduced to commemoration, but questions the way in which individuals and societies rebuild themselves after trauma.
From nuclear power to the Mediterranean: a cinema attentive to contemporary fractures
The documentary programming addresses several major contemporary political and social issues. A “Morning of the atom” will notably bring together two films devoted to nuclear power.
In Fear on edgeFranck Sanson compares Fukushima, in Japan, and the territory of La Hague, in Normandy. The documentary observes the way in which nuclear fear is inscribed in bodies and landscapes: disaster become reality for some, diffuse or repressed threat for others.
Still energyby Laurent Pannier, looks back on the mobilization of 20,000 people against the Flamanville EPR project in 2006. Twenty years later, while nuclear power is experiencing a renewed legitimacy in the French public debate, the film questions the evolution of opinions, the gradual erasure of certain resistance and the memory of environmental struggles.
Another highlight, Save Our Soulsby Jean-Baptiste Bonnet, accompanies the rescue operations carried out in the Mediterranean by theOcean Vikingship of the SOS Méditerranée association. On board, the survivors recount their journey and try to find, after the experience of violence and death, a place among the living.
Clandestine abortion told by those who experienced it
Sonia Gonzalez’s documentary produced with the National Audiovisual Institute, Just listen to womenwill give voice to the stories of women confronted with clandestine abortion before the Veil law of 1975.
Based on testimonies and archives, the film recalls the physical suffering, humiliation, survival strategies and female solidarity that surrounded clandestine terminations of pregnancy. The words of Annie Ernaux and Christiane Taubira help to place these individual experiences in a political and collective history.
At a time when the right to abortion continues to be called into question in several countries, the documentary reminds us that legal conquests find their origin in concrete lives, long condemned to silence.
Caregivers, illness and family transmission
Several films focus on family ties weakened or transformed by illness. In Our lives suspendedJulie Scheibling and Olivia Fégar tell the story of Christian, who filmed his daughters on camcorder for years. Suffering from a neurodegenerative disease at the age of 65, he in turn became the subject of images recorded by his eldest daughter.
The reversal of the camera accompanies that of family roles. The child becomes a caregiver, filmed memory becomes a means of retaining what disappears, while family cinema acquires a new value: that of an intimate resistance against erasure.
I’m not Supermanby David Vallet, focuses on the millions of people who daily accompany a sick, elderly or disabled loved one. In La Manche, the Caregivers’ Coffee Break is a place where these often invisible people can let go of their fatigue, break their isolation and find a form of solidarity.
A Normandy told by its languages, its ports and its inhabitants
The festival’s Norman roots also appear in several portraits of territories. With But Christmas languishesRémi Mauger goes in search of Norman dialects. The film asks whether the “patois” of older generations has really disappeared or whether it continues to live through speakers, expressions, accents and practices sometimes transmitted discreetly.
In Soren & Karving in open watersFanny Gadan follows two 14-year-old teenagers living in Le Havre. In difficulty at school and in conflict with authority, the two friends find a territory of autonomy in fishing. The port and the sea become places of parallel learning, outside the institutional frameworks where they struggle to find their place.
The Sirens of Dieppeby Nicolas Engel and Nicolas Birkenstock, dives into a burlesque cabaret that appeared in the port city. Behind the glitter, the acts and the humor emerge social struggles, forms of resistance and a community which makes the show a space of affirmation.
David Lynch, wildlife and the ghosts of history
The program further broadens its horizons with David Lynch, une énigme à Hollywoodportrait of the American director by Stéphane Ghez. The documentary looks back on a work constructed on the border of dreams, black cinema, the unconscious and formal experimentation.
In Prélude à la vie sauvageBaptiste Magontier follows Alexis Albert, holder of ancestral know-how who wishes to escape the constraints of modernity. Hampered by French legislation, he plans to leave the country with his family in order to realize his wildlife project. The film tests contemporary dreams of autonomy and a return to nature.
8 secondsby Jean-Marie Vinclair, explores a family secret linked to the Second World War. By discovering that an ancestor who died as a martyr in Germany remains almost unknown to his own descendants, the director investigates silences, breaks in transmission and the creation of family memory.
Finally, In the middle of the desert, there was a wellby Chris Pellerin, gives voice to Jean, 84 years old, confronted with photographs of his past in Algeria. His paradoxical desire to “relive in order to forget” condenses the difficulty in freeing oneself from a history which continues to affect French and Algerian memories.
Short films for all ages
Short films will occupy a major place in this edition. Several sessions will be aimed at children and adolescents, including Ma grand-mère bien aimée d’Inès Hannoy, Inuit night de Gamzé Sambur, It’s blue by Camille Tardieu, At Leukemia by Mika by Bruno Romy or encore The Trouser Trial de Maxime Chefdeville.
The program “Creatures in madness” will bring together films playing with fantasy, animality, strangeness and black humor. The session “Alone with people around” will be more interested in isolation, the feeling of marginality and the relationships that are formed in sometimes oppressive urban or family environments.
The festival will also present a trilogy by director Claude Duty – Oil Painting, Water Music et Fire Notebooks — as well as carte blanche to Short Up, formerly This Is England, devoted to several British short films presented in the original version with subtitles.
Workshops intended for young people will also be organized on Saturday June 27 in the afternoon.
Jazz, sea shanties and cabaret under the big top
The First Days of Summer will not only be cinematic. On Friday June 26 at 7 p.m., the duo B2 Swing will offer a free concert mixing jazz, blues and funk, in partnership with Les Arches en Jazz.
Saturday June 27 at 7:30 p.m., the Cotentin Sailors’ Choir will perform their traditional sea shanties on the outdoor stage of the festival village.
The evening will continue at 9:30 p.m. under the red marquee with La Sirène and Barbe. This cabaret will combine drag shows, musical performances, circus and humor. A dinner with table service will be offered from 8:30 p.m. before the show.
Program for the First Days of Summer 2026
Friday June 26
- 9:30 a.m.: youth short film program, Émile-Jeanne room
- 10h30 : Bitter lovers et Soren & Karving in open watersÉmile-Jeanne room
- 14h : The Flight from Varennes et But Christmas languishesÉmile-Jeanne room
- 2 p.m.: Normandie Images work meeting, by invitation, red marquee
- 2 p.m.: youth short film program, blue marquee
- 3:30 p.m.: program of adolescent short films, Émile-Jeanne room
- 5 p.m.: “Alone with people around” program, red marquee
- 6 p.m.: First Days of Summer quiz at Bar’Roc, free
- 19h : concert B2 Swing Duo, gratuit
- 20h45 : Born from the ruinsopening film, red marquee
- 21h: Cinema, Monique and meÉmile-Jeanne room
- 22h20 : The Comedy of Lifered marquee
Saturday June 27
- 9h40 : I’m not Supermanblue marquee
- 10h : Soren & Karving in open watersÉmile-Jeanne room
- 10h : Fear on edgered marquee
- 11:05 a.m.: Still energyred marquee
- 11:15 a.m.: David Lynch, une énigme à Hollywoodblue marquee
- 11:35 a.m.: Save Our SoulsÉmile-Jeanne room
- 12:50 p.m.: “Creatures in madness” program, red marquee
- 1 p.m. : Prélude à la vie sauvageblue marquee
- 13h35: Just listen to womenÉmile-Jeanne room
- 2:35 p.m.: youth short film program, blue marquee
- 14h50 : In the middle of the desert, there was a wellred marquee
- 15h50 : 8 secondsÉmile-Jeanne room
- 3:50 p.m.: Short Up carte blanche, blue marquee
- 16h10 : Singer momred marquee
- 5:45 p.m.: Claude Duty trilogy, Émile-Jeanne room
- 17h45 : The Sirens of Dieppered marquee
- 17h50 : Our lives suspendedblue marquee
- 7:30 p.m.: concert by the Chœur des Marins du Cotentin, free
- 20h30 : dîner du cabaret, service à table
- 21h: Prélude à la vie sauvageÉmile-Jeanne room
- 9:30 p.m.: La Sirène à Barbe cabaret, red marquee
- 10:10 p.m.: “Alone with people around” program, Émile-Jeanne room
Sunday June 28
- 10am: program “Creatures in madness”, red hat
- 1:15 p.m.: surprise film, red marquee
Practical information
Festival The First Days of Summer
Friday 26, Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 June 2026
Village of Saint-Lô-d’Ourville
Port-Bail-sur-Mer, Manche
Prices:
Séance à l’unité : 4 € ; tarif réduit : 3 €
Pass festival : 20 € ; tarif réduit : 10 €
Cabaret Soirée : 15 € ; discounted rate: 10 €
Tickets available at the Cotentin tourist office, on site during the festival and online on the Premiers Jours d’Été, Attitude Manche and HelloAsso websites.
Catering and refreshment bar on site. The concerts take place outdoors. Two free mini-rooms also show short films during the festival.
