I had never heard of Hema. I have no clue where I got the link to this video from. I have no idea why I enjoyed it so much, but I did. I really enjoyed this, thanks for making it
Name titles at the bottom of the screen could stay on longer, but that's about my only criticism of this excellent documentary -- very well done! And I loved at 1:22:40 when David Rawlings said "we're not a hipster movement yet" and you cut to a guy in plaid with a giant beard!
You have not feeled joy until you hold a longsword for the first time. Feeling its wait and balence clashing whith another blade. My first hema leson was pure dopamine
Excellent film, and it's also so refreshing to see good strong representation of female fighters too. Whether it's LARP, re-enacting, fencing, HEMA etc women can enjoy it just as much as men. Great production.
+Mububban23 So many of the excellent HEMA instructors and fencers I know are women. Just like every other martial art, I often see women working the hardest. Something that should be recognized more.
Thanks so much for creating this awesome resource, Cedric. It really is a work of passion, both from you and the community you've interviewed. Thank you as well for being open to feedback and giving us such a great (and easily shareable) explanation of what we do! Cheers, ~S
Samantha - that last part of what you said (a great, easily shareable explanation) really rings true and it's what I absolutely love about this documentary regardless of how many times I've watched it. I'd actually been looking into HEMA for about a year and a half before I finally discovered that there's a club less than five minutes' drive from me (which I, of course, joined - I've been practicing for about 4 and a half months now). Before I started, the documentary helped give me a clear picture of what this is all about so that when I did begin training, I knew what I got into and hit the ground running. Now that I'm a HEMA practitioner, the more I do this, the more I can relate to what's said in the interviews through my own experiences. It's certainly had an influence on me as I went in, from an initial desire to get all-black equipment (to keep to what seems to be a growing "standard look") to always being self-conscious that I'm now representing the HEMA community to my non-fencer friends & coworkers, because I'm the one person they know who went off and started doing it. The video is still the first thing I recommend my non-fencing friends watch if they want to know just what it is I've gotten into. I do my best to help spread the word about HEMA around those I know in my day-to-day, and this documentary has been a big help. Thanks so much for making it. =)
+Samantha Swords While watching this documentary I developed quite a crush on you. You seem to have a very positive attitude, a genuine passion, and you can just tell there is real intelligence in your speech and pure joy behind that big beautiful smile. Plus you are very attractive and you practice HEMA.. I mean, how cool is that?
this is so me. I'm an artist, and have been wanting to learn how these techniques are preformed and what they do so I can draw them properly without having to fantasize. Plus, I'm also a huge fan of Medieval history, and learning how to weild a sword is already as awesome as it sounds. Man, I really should give HEMA a shot some day.
This is a phenomenal documentary whether you already know anything about HEMA or not. It's very clear how much work was put into it and I hope it only gets more popular! Thanks for a wonderful watch!
Excellent documentary on HEMA. The captioning was extremely helpful for me as a deaf sports fencer and artist, allowing me to understand that community better. Fascinating stuff.
Oh my goodness, when I look at this film, I see so many engaged people that have so much wisdom to share. I have a strong interest to try HEMA out, and at some point of my life I ******* will. Just right now I don't have the time. Many thanks for the video, I learned already plenty for my way ahead!
I was struck by the comment about Asian movies near the end of chapter one. I hope these historical techniques find their way into western films in the same prominent way very soon.
I knew of one school in my overall area...thanks to this film I know there are two. I mainly study Chinese martial arts, but I always love gaining knowledge and seeing martial technique, as well as the history of fighting arts. This film is very well done! My thanks to Cedric for posting this!
Also wanted to point this out because I was nerding out hard on this bit. Throughout the film, the odd back and forth between the aggravation of how many films get HEMA wrong and the fact that film brings people to the discipline. Well at one point I noticed one of those who contributed mentioned the SwordMaster Agripa(forgive me if I screwed up the spelling). I wanted to point out for any who didn't catch it, but that name is one thrown around between Inigo and Wesley during their fight in the Princess Bride. :) It's a silly detail but I found myself delighted by this realization.
Watched this before I finally joined the local club about a year ago. Just realized I never posted a thank you-note for providing me with the motivation to do so. THANK YOU!!
Wow! I have been looking for such a thing all of my life. I was always interested in swords fighting and fencing. But never found the community or the place to train it. I tried to find a Kendo school in my city but even that was not available in the UAE and especially in my city in Abu Dhabi. Soon enough this sport is coming here in the UAE and in my city. I even know the person who is bringing it into the country and establishing it here. I even did a sparring session with him for like an hour or so. So I think the first country in the Middle East that will start this is the UAE. It would be such an honor to start it here in the region. I can't wait to start attending classes in this. Such an amazing documentary by the way. Thank you.
This has been collecting dust in my to-watch-list ever since Matt (from Scholagladiatoria) recommended it in one of his videos, and now I finally have watched it. Thanks, was very entertaining and informative, too. Cheers, Jess
That feeling when you visited a H.E.M.A. class almost a week ago at less than an hour's walk away, haven't been able to stop watching videos involving it in anticipation of training in mediæval awesomeness since; and then see the class instructor in this very documentary at 15:51 LOL.
Great piece of Documentary! Inb4 the pommel jokes, and trying to identify "hema stig" from Matt Easton's Chanel (although with this doco, it becomes to easy, I'd say!) In all seriousness, that's Great Great stuff, you've got here, with humble yet knowledgeable people, and from all around the world! How long did it take you to shoot all the interviews? There must have been a heck of a lot of traveling involved! I would rate it way above what TV has produced in that regard, And I really think channels such as Arte in France and Germany, or PBS in the US would honor themselves in diffusing this if they ever want to cover the subject!
What is the "club" where I live is nor official? or I don't even know what "school" they use for the movements. How do I know their accuracy? it's not like the channel "thw sword's path"...
a great look at the HEMA community overall. It is really nice to see so many emblematic and well known faces in the report...it is equally disconcerting though to not not see some of the most brilliant swordsmen like Carlos Negredo.
Minor correction regarding what the russian guy was saying in regards to sport fencing wear white, you dont have to wear white socks and actually the FIE allows non white jackets.
Coming back to rewatch this video, Ive just realized why that guy at 15:52 looked familiar! He's a free scholar and one of my favorite teachers at our hema club in canada hahaha
This is really engaging and fascinating, so kudos to the director & editor team for one thing. I can't offer any expert comment or reaction - I have *handled* a couple of weapons, but never done any training or the like. Still, I found this educational. I'm coming at this from a 'nerdy tabletop games' angle. I'm a long-time role-player and GM, and quite apart from the pure historical interest, I think I've learned a few things to spice up my nerd-game vocabulary, so - thank you! Also I think what the HEMA peeps are doing is super cool. Also also, I agree that I want to see more technical accuracy in movie & TV fighting. Not every fight needs the research (eg Wesley vs Inigo in 'The Princess Bride' is fun partly BECAUSE they are just Flynning like an old-school movie) but any genre flick that's going for a 'realistic' tone only benefits from expert stunt/fight advice. Okay, done rambling. Great work everybody! And thanks once more.
Wow, what a good overview and collected knowledge and perfect arrangement of interviews and stuff. Great work! Thank you so much for this piece of art! I got to HEMA by "accident" (I was invited to a medieval party and started learning despite this party never got done - I was promised a real armor which I could keep :( ) and now I got stuck with it ;)
Hey! Amazing work, thanks for doing this! Are you planing to add captions, specially in other languages? I would *love* spanish captions to be able to share this with people in my country, and I'm willing to create them myself if you want, but I would need english captions first, to ensure I'm not getting anything wrong.
+Cédric Hauteville | Photographer, film maker My club is based on Perú, and we would certainly love to be able to show this documentary to our non-English-speaking students.
For a while there, polearms were basically 10 foot long can openers. Really interesting to see how they developed with these ideas in mind. Also worth noting that I've read a bit on modern methods for manufacturing blades compared to historical methods, and it seems that in fact modern methods are superior. There's definitely a romance to a master blacksmith infusing his blood and sweat into a blade with every hammer swing, but what he's actually hammering away for is reducing impurities in the metal by beating them out. Same thing goes for folded steel in some regard, as it's really just a thorough way of reducing these impurities. When compared to modern methods of producing steel however, these impurities are released when the steel is brought to a molten state, and then desired elements reintroduced to produce, arguably not in all cases, superior steel. The blades basic shape is then cut from a plate of desired steel, and the process of material removal begins, which by all rights is an equally demanding and skill oriented process. Spring steel also seems to be superior to any historical examples of swords that have been recovered and tested, and is incredible for most any style of European sword.
I have recently become infatuated with the history and evolution of war strategy and combat. How armies marching in unison turned into squads stealthily moving spread apart, how shield walls turned into trenches and how aerial combat changed the game entirely. Martial arts reflect this in part. Fighting is something humans have done for their entire existence, and as I delved deeper and deeper into the topic, I started to feel weird about the idea of not being able to fight myself. What would my ancestors say? HEMA was not the go to for me in that regard though. I find it fascinating and I highly enjoy learning more about it. What I ended up picking up for myself though was BJJ with the outlook of moving into an MMA direction once I‘ve gotten a bit better. I‘ve been at it for almost a year now and I‘ve gotten a notable confidence boost already. Mind you, I don’t expect that I‘d be able to fight of a group of five muggers or any movie shit like that; just the fact that I am starting to master a style of fighting born and gradually being perfected in modernity that somewhat mirrors the general environment I, a person born in modernity as well, live in (unarmed and unarmored) feels *right.*
I wanna meet the chick who carries a longsword and a rapier in the trunk of her car. I carry a longsword and a battle axe in my Jeep :) This is a fascinating treatise of a lost art that is being resurrected. I likely won't be alive in the 20 - 100 year period it will take to fully develop this lost skill, but I am alive now to see it being brought back to life. This is an interesting time to witness this phenomena. My sincere thanks to Paul Southren for posting this as Video of the Month on SBG.
Great documentary. One question: ¿Why Ilkka Hartikainen is not in it?. He´s one of the most greatest and important modern fencers. He has an amazing recreation on Bolognece tradition, that gives a great and important aport to all HEMA comunity. Thanks for sharing.
Very well put together documentary! The only detail I slightly struggle with is the font for the names/titles, because its size and shape make it hard to read, especially when blended in for only a few seconds.
Awesome documentary! I hope the teaching of HEMA gets global. I wish I could learn it here where I live, but there are no clubs yet. Anyway, amazing material. Thank you.
+David Wilson I've checked, the closest one is 8 hours away from me unfortunately. I would train on my own, but the cost to import the equipment to Brazil is huge :(
+David Wilson Thanks for the tip! I haven't checked New Sterling Arms yet, and I quite liked the ARMA side swod. Maybe I'll save up a little bit to get it. To bad the Real is so devalued in relation to the Dollar
indeed. Also check out Black Fencer, which make wonderful synthetic wasters. Euro currency. Close to the same price as a quality wooden waster but better for practice and sparring.
If Kendo is fencing, this is Kobudo/Kobujitsu. This reminds me of stories of Japan at the end of the Meiji restoration working to save its martial arts from going extinct in the face of the westernization of the country. Impressive.
Well I whent from someone mainly intrested in katanas just cus I know abit on it from training various martial arts back to a fascinated mixed martial artist who just wants to have fun and these guys are martial artists and this looks alot of fun
is that Jon Sayles arrangement of the Pavane, by Gabriel Faure in the background? If so, I think that it is a nice coincidence thar his arrangements are used in several videos about Hema on youtube :D
I personally would love it if this got big enough that we could have it recognized as an actual martial art. like, championships! like televised professionals getting paid big bucks to show up and throw down! I can see it much like MMA, the pros make money off of it and I get the drawbacks described, but the public interest raised could lead to big discoveries! new opportunities! and all we have to keep in mind is that the tournament is not the end-all be-all, just like the historic professional. Sigmund Ringeck got big bucks for teaching I'm sure, but I'm also sure he was also looking to be the best he could be.
+l33tsamurai HEMA already is recognized in Sweden. The first official national championship was held this summer. But there is a long way to go before professionals can live on it, but I think it's the case for most martial arts and other sports.
+Seneca Gamer Of course, you must have noticed in the documentary that there are people of all ethnicities practicing HEMA. I am a practitioner myself.
I was actually surprised by how many women were in this. I don't know if you intentionally showed a lot of them to try and get more females into HEMA or what, but its awesome that they are that many in the first place. I'm all for a woman that can defend herself.
@Apologies for the confusion. When two swordsmen engage in a bind, which refers to the situation where their swords are in contact with each other, certain principles and concepts can be applied to reason about the possible actions and outcomes. These principles are based on the nature of the bind and the physics of sword movement.🎉
I see only one real flaw, in this documentary: It's great for us HEMA people, but... I don't feel that it is very great for most non-HEMA people (who are the people that a HEMA documentary would be best to show to, and who would benefit most from one. HEMA people will know a lot of the stuff already, after all). Still, great documentary and I'm more than happy to have contributed to the crowdfunding for it :)
+ZarlanTheGreen I'm not a HEMA person, and I have to say this documentary actually helped me a lot in finding sources and really sparking my interest in HEMA. I definitely think this is a real good documentary to show the more serious side of HEMA and not just the guys practicing in their backyards with a wooden stick.
FirstBurns Well I'm glad that it is able to get at least _some_ non-HEMA folk interested and/or excited :) I still think it's not that good at it, but apparently it does a bit of it, so that's good.
You should list the first video again and just put a massive annotation directing it to this one. You'll get a lot more people to watch it that way, it'll be promoted more because it has so many views and likes.
Good question. I have been a bit out of touch with the community, but it's definitely gaining in visibility, with a US tournament being broadcast on ESPN a couple years back, and HEMA featuring in the European Games earlier this year.
Depends who you ask. Most people would argue that adhering to the source is the best way (if not the only way) to get good at the art. Others will say that the source is just a guideline and you're free to do whatever works.
I have on big issue with HEAM, they always look down on reenactment and so called buhurts/knight fighting. Because they don't use historical techniques, and meant that they just don't understand neither of the two. Buhurst/knight fighting is sport which evolve from reenactment tournament and it is SPORT. And Reenactment look on bigger pictures, like for examples shoes you wear (which changes fighting so much ;), equipment you use, how you make all other thing beside the fighting and fighting in larger scales (which hema almost never do) etc.
20:45 How many people have yachts? And how many people have original copies of medieval fencing treatises? So which is really more of a status symbol nowadays? :V
45:52 I haven't done HEMA before, but isn't it bad to be gated by history? There will be a time where the martial art should be advanced right? Or is there a different martial arts you could move to after you learn HEMA?
HEMA is about answering the question "how did people fight back then?", not "what is the 'absolute best' way to fight with this weapon?". Even if you're informed by the former, doing the latter is something other than HEMA (which is perfectly fine and nobody will stop you from doing that as long as you don't misrepresent what you're doing).
If you want to know what martial arts work today look at UFC champions. The most common base martial arts are: 1. Hands down Greco roman wrestling. 28 2. Brazilian jujitsu 17 3. Boxing 12 4. Kickboxing 6 5. Muay Thai 4 6. And finally taekwondo with only 2 people having had it as the "base martial art" and 7. Karate with only 1.
Couldn't you just create a training sword with a kind of merlon edge that get constricted into each other to simulate the sharp-edge sticking you would to make it a bit dipped so that it wouldn't stick at any angle? Or would this just cause unrealistic bouncing?