Écritures - Petite Histoire de l'invention de l'écriture

Invented more than 5,000 years ago, in different areas of the planet, writing represents a true cultural revolution for human kind. This doumentary presents and compares diverse systems of writing (Chinese, Egyptian, Cuneiform), shows the underlying principles that they share, as well as their variety and their entrenchment in the societies which created them. It also shows how our alphabets, which we believe to be simple assemblies of sign-sounds, also use other signs, just like the latter, more complex systems. In comparing the invention of writing and its evolulion, the goal for this documentary is to explain to a large audience the way our contemporary alphabets function and also to serve a pedagogical support for a more thorough investigation.