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DOSSIER
Canal+ and Arte are still at the forefront of investigative documentaries
Despite the inevitable changes in programming schedules that characterise today’s television channels, Arte and Canal+ are the two French TV channels that continue giving importance to investigative documentaries. Focusing on each of the channel’s editorial approach toward the genre is a little like checking the vital signs of this documentary style that raises awareness.
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The investigative documentaries
programmed by Arte most often encompass international subjects,as seen
here, the problem of nuclear waste
The time when programming schedules were set in
stone for years on end is over; this includes for television channels
that always supported investigations, such as Arte and Canal+. With the
proliferation of distribution vehicles and the radical changes to
productions’ technological base, the boundaries between genres have
shifted even while mission and editorial guidelines remain clearly
distinguishable, especially at Arte and Canal+. In recent months French
producers of investigative documentaries have grown increasingly
concerned.
Indeed, Tuesday evening’s Thema slot, which was traditionally devoted to the genre, is now
occupied by a programme on Europe hosted by Patrick Poivre d'Arvor or by Daniel
Lecomte’s programmes covering contemporary social subjects, which are
broken up into two reports that are each under 45 minutes long. In spite
of the unease felt by producers because of this change to the programming
grid, Alex Szalata, director of the News, Society and Geopolitics
Department at ARTE France does not sidestep the issue.
According to Szalata the investigative
documentary remains at the heart of Arte’s editorial guidelines:
"The changes to the evening schedule have not stopped Arte from
purchasing fourteen investigative documentaries to be aired in 2009. It
is just one less than in 2008, when we hosted 17 theme-based evening
specials based on investigative documentaries. We must consider 2009 as a
transition year. We have not actually initiated any new investigations,
but we are continuing ongoing investigations, and we have others in
development stages awaiting to be put into production."
If it is still unclear if investigative
documentaries will find a new regularly scheduled programming slot at
Arte, the channel’s executive producers are trying to place them niche
slots throughout the week in either the first or second half of evening
broadcasts, as opportunity allows.
In this manner, a documentary on NATO was
broadcast during primetime on April 13, and another on employees of
nuclear facilities on May 12, later in the evening. In the wake of these
two major investigations, others on post-Castro Cuba, anthrax (by Bob
Cohen), the EADS aeronautics company, Dubai’s vertical cities, and the South
American renaissance should follow.
Beyond these broad, educational investigations
aimed at covering one subject in its entirety, more personal, or even
ethnologic documentaries still have their place at Arte. One example is Les routes du desespoir (The roads of desperation), where the director
follows illegal workers crossing the Mexico-US border.
ARTE: Ambitious and international
investigations
At Arte the documentary style in which the
journalist makes on-camera appearances throughout his or her
investigation is not the preferred format. "For a simple reason,” explains Pierrette Ominetti, director of Arte’s Documentary
Programmes Department. “Because of the channel’s
bilingual (French-German) nature we are forced to invent ways in which
journalists on-camera appearances won’t immediately pose technical
problems related to translation.” The channel’s bi-national status, and its longstanding
co-production agreements with numerous partners in North America and
Asia, gives Arte a greater openness to the world. "Nevertheless, our
editorial guideline places people at the centre of the investigation,”
adds Ominetti.
“Even for subjects not directly related to French culture, this is
the best way to involve our entire audience in all its diversity. We pose
a series of questions that along the way will raise the viewers’
awareness of a subject. We try to remain at a human level and avoid
lingering in high-minded economic and political spheres. It's almost
conceived as a public service.”
According to Ominetti, Arte’ approach is to
highlight today’s relevant issues, while avoiding clichés and minding
political correctness.“A good example is Eric Gueret’s Le cauchemar du nucleaire (The nuclear nightmare), produced by Bonne
Pioche. The film addresses the issue of nuclear waste in no ambiguous
terms," says
Omnietti.
Some of
Arte’s investigative documentaries continue to receive wide attention,
such as the film Pour l’amour de
l’eau (For the love of the
water), which was purchased by the channel and presented last year at
Sunny Side. The film, "bent on” attacking water treatment companies,
has experienced wide international recognition and is currently at the
centre of a lawsuit against Arte by the Suez Environment company, which
was brought forth after the film’s release in France.
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Canal+: Focusing on the important
trends in French culture
Lately Arte has made attempts to leave the “Big
investigation” format behind. During recent Thema future broadcasts,
the presenter appeared on-camera during the investigation. This is the
preferred style of the other French TV channel committed to investigative
documentaries, Canal+. "Before every documentary or grand exposition
on the state of the world, I ask the journalist for an investigation,”
says Christine Cauquelin, director of the Documentary Department at
Canal+. “We are not in the cinema
verite business, or capturing
reality in its raw form. For the film Un grand corps malade (Big sick body) we conducted several months of research before we
started shooting. We studied the five reports on the National Education
that were presented to French parliamentary assemblies and documented
every action taken by the education ministers over the last ten
years." Broadcasting at 8:30pm, Canal’s objective is clear : dissect
French society "in a systemic way." For Canal, imbedding a
journalist in a single school will not address France’s education
system’s problems. Rather, the channel has sought to gather as many
points of view, from the teacher’s unions, from the training schools,
from the halls of the education ministry, from the experts. "We try
to give a macroscopic view of things: a kind of global picture,” says
Cauquelin. “We do what the English call the ‘comprehensive
documentary" and I sincerely believe that this should be the basis
of the genre: to provide a better understanding of the world. In this
approach it is not necessary to have perfect objectivity, just an
intellectual honesty that ensures solid and always deeper investigative
work.”
And Christine
Cauquelin has advanced her profession of faith for investigative
documentaries into a programming slot on Monday evenings. “In this
troubled period, the documentary should have an even greater role of
illuminating the complex world in which we live and which we feel eludes us.
I am not one of those who believe that in times of crisis entertainment
should be the first response of television. Moreover, the investigative
documentary made its full comeback after the Gulf War. My definition for
investigative documentaries is "factual programming", that is
anything that is not fiction.
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During these times of crisis, investigative documentaries are especially needed in order to raise awareness of key issues
This includes everything from William Carrel to Envoye Special. Between these two extremes there is a great
flexibility which I call my playground," says Cauquelin. However,
the Canal+ executive, just as her homologues at Arte, has not
precipitated herself on the subject of the current economic crisis that characterises
this time period. "I've already had proposals on this subject,”
admits Cauquelin, “but I think we do not have the necessary perspective
on the current crisis to treat it appropriately in a 90-minute
documentary format for primetime. We are still in the sphere of reporting
events, and not far enough along for a documentary that can put
everything into perspective. I prefer to deal with the problems of French
society from a different angle, such as we did recently based on an
article which appeared in the newspaper Liberation titled
“Danger in our plates,” which shows that rich people are skinnier than
poor people. We started out by investigated the prefab "bad
food", overloaded with sugars and salts. But as the investigation
progressed we found that poor diets have heightened cardiovascular
disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension -we’re talking about a real public
health problem that lobbies are trying to silence. So we reoriented the
documentary toward the issue of a public health problem and are now six
months into the investigation."
The Internet: Springboard for hype
or novel narrative form?
As far as investigative documentaries are
concerned, the Internet remains, in most cases, simply an additional
distribution channel and not a place where specific programmes are
created. Most of the time Web use is limited to the publication of a blog
to create buzz around a film’s upcoming release. On Arte, however, Alex
Szalata has gone a step further with the project "Gaza /
Sderot", which began appearing on the Internet in October 2008, at
the beginning of Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip. The Web clips were
then reformatted into a 52- minute film titled "The Pre-war
Chronicles,"
which aired
on television in early February 2009. "With this first successful
experiment," says Alex Szalata; “we have a new project in
development of daily Web broadcasts between Cuba and Miami, which will
then be re-aired on the channel as a 52-minute format. Such a web
documentary is interesting because it allows the to break the traditional
chronological documentary process -research, writing, tracking, shooting,
editing- here, everything happens almost in real time. Once we have
material to work with we try to give it another, more immediate narrative
form. Here there is no message decoding, not even impressionism, just
personal testimonies that don’t even need to be contextualised.”
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France 2 and "Modern-day slaves"
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At the end
of this year France 2 will broadcast, as part of its Infrarouge series, the
60-minute film Esclaves modernes (Modern-day Slaves), produced by Chiloe
Productions and currently being shot in India, Brazil and France by
Teresa Pounzi and Sabah Rahmani. Slavery still exists. It is even on
the rise. 161 countries are directly concerned. "The project aims
to expose an aberration, a scandal of globalization, which through this
lens seems more like a regression than progress," says Dana
Hastier, director of programmes at France 2’s Documentary Department.
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To account
for the universality of the situation, the creators have chosen to
address three areas of activity on three different continents:
Agriculture in Brazil, manufacturing in India and the services sector
in France.” Started one month ago, the shooting of Esclaves threatens
to be long and delicate. For example, for the Brazilian chapter, the
directors have had to establish contact with the specialised brigades
in charge of freeing slaves. Yes, you read that right. Infrarouge, airing in
the second half of Tuesday evenings, has conquered 15% to 20% of audience share.
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"We
feel a real expectation from viewers eager to better understand the
world in which they live,” adds Hastier. “Contemporary history
fascinates them. The documentary is something we are proud of at France
Televisions.” France 2, just on its own, allocates 15 million euros
annually to documentary production.
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NEWS
Overview of the Sofia Rendez-vous
Sunny Side’s 6th Documentary Co-production Gathering was a Success
Our 6th co-production Rendezvous was full of unprecedented situations. We were facing a
new market with specific regulations. We were of course within Europe, with
a large number of participants from newly integrated European Union
countries, but we also attracted a significant number of professionals from
Eastern Europe who are not (yet) part of the EU. We were also made aware
that longstanding relations already exist between those countries,
especially the Balkan countries (former Yugoslavia, Greece). Despite the
financial crisis, new initiatives exist; new organizations are emerging,
including Buldoc, a mark of quality comprising Bulgarian professionals, and
whose creation was officially announced during Sunny Side’s Rendezvous.
Outside the Balkans, IDF (Institute of Documentary Films), based in Prague,
has been organising and training Eastern European producers for several
years. High-quality training sessions, supported by Media, are preparing
producers for the international market. Bridges of cooperation already
exist and it was surprising to see the significant number of projects
already backed by ITVS from the USA. In the previous newsletter we
mentioned that television stations from Eastern Europe do not finance films.
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Producers get their funding
primarily from their local versions of the CNC (the French National
Cinematography Centre) and eventually from the international market and
through Media’s support. This reality was confirmed during the second day’s
conference, which was attended by producers, television channels and public
funding agencies from Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Romania. We might be
inclined to suppose that the difficulty in finding funding is a barrier to
development; that the total absence of the TV stations in the makeup of
budgets slows down production. Witnessing the quality of the projects we
received, the quality of the presentations for the projects we selected
-and the selection was difficult-
made us realize that a different reality exists. The Commissioning Editors
from Western TV channels were very clearly interested in the projects,
despite their recurrent excuse: "The project is beautiful but it does
not fall into any of our programming slots”. Let us not block the doors
that have been opened by saying that format restrictions may stifle
documentary creation, but rather let’s see how the producers themselves can
detour the market’s current context. Apart from the presentations, the
meetings between producers from the East and West were numerous, intense
and fruitful. Co-production agreements were initiated and we know that
certain funding plans are already intricate mosaics grouping an increased
number of small countries and small, local TV channels that are opening up
rights for the Media plan.
We should take special
notice of the distribution sessions organized in partnership with the Sofia
Festival during the gathering’s last day. The mix of documentary and
fiction genres has favoured meetings between distributors from the East and
West, working primarily in niche segments, but which emphasised the growing
interest in documentary films, starting with all the Festivals that take
place in Eastern Europe. The Sofia Festival also offered us the opportunity
to meet foundations that finance films, such as Duna Workshop (Hungary) and
the Robert Bosch Foundation (Germany). For the future, it is obvious that
it is the direct relationships between producers that will allow the
development of East-West co-productions. IIt is also evident that Eastern European television channels are still incapable of prebuying projects, and that the prices offered
are very low. But the talent is there, and the existing economic challenges generate great creativity. The embrace of documentaries from Eastern Europe by TV channels in the
West is a precondition for their market’s progress, and will encourage continuing coproductions with these countries.
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Some figures from Sofia
175 participants from 22 European countries
(11 from the East / 11 from the West) exchanged
documentary projects during 4 days, reaching several agreements.
32 decision makers were present, including from the BBC, Channel 4, The History Channel
UK, MDR, NDR, Pro Sieben, PBS Malta, YLE Finland, Romania TV, TV Poland,
Bulgarian TV, Duna TV Hungary, Arte, Arte GEIE, France 2 and France 3,
among others.
23 projects were pitched, the quality and originality of which were widely
recognized. Among these projects: The
Last Tightrope Dancer of Armenia – Bars
Media / The Balkans: History & its Lessons – Mat Films / The lost Tape of Adrian Tudor – Carter Films / The Town of Badante Women – Argofilm / Nicky’s
Family – Trigon Production / Cinema Komunisto – Dribbling Pictures / A
Woman’s Womb – Temps Noir / Concrete Stories – Axman Production / A.C. Stephen Confidential – Agitprop / Propaganda
Kompanien – ECPAD.
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Erratum
Following the publication
of the article “The new Bulgarian wave at Sofia” in Newsletter No. 2,
producer Patrick Sandrin asked us to clarify that the foundation he has
created is called “Culture and Development” and that the “OpenClass” is
not
a foundation but "thematic conferences on Film."
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FIGRA took place from March 25 – 29
in Touquet, France. For of a
list of the winners visit :
http://www.figra.fr/palmares.html
Visions du Reel – The Nyon International Documentary Film Festival.
In Nyon, Switzerland, April 23 – 29, 2009 : http://www.visionsdureel.ch/
Hotdocs - Canadian International Documentary Festival. In Toronto Canada, April 30 to : http://www.hotdocs.ca/
The Toronto Documentary Forum : http://www.hotdocs.ca/index.php/industry/tdf/submissions/
The Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation, call for applications for 2009
Scholarships
If you are a young director, at least 30 years old, and have already shot a documentary which aired on television, or was screened at a festival or in a theatre, and you have a documentary project of any format (series TRT 26 minutes ;single film TRT 52 or 90 minutes), and your project covers a social, economic, political, scientific or cultural issue, apply to the Documentary director’s Scholarship. Applications must submitted to the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation before June 12. For more information visit: www.fondation-jeanluclagardere.com
From June 23 to 26,
2009> Sunny Side celebrates 20 years!
REGISTER AT: http://www.sunnysideofthedoc.com/
BIPS - BEST INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS SHOWCASE
Daily theme-based pitch sessions in the Agora. Key decision makers and specialists in each subject matter, will be invited to attend these presentations. 6 projects will be selected for each subject (HISTORY, SCIENCE, the ENVIRONMENT, OCIAL/POLITICAL issues, ARTS/CULTURE, CINEMA). The best BIPS will be awarded ! |
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INTERVIEW
Einsatzgruppen de
Michaël Prazan dans Infrarouge sur France 2
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Michael Prazan’s documentary on the commandos that
murdered nearly a million and half Jews from Eastern Europe between 1941
and 1945 made a huge impression among audiences at Sofia. Einsatzgruppen is
a unique testimony that offers new information to historians. An interview with
the film’s director follows.
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Who are the Einsatzgruppen?
They are
mobile killing commandos who carry out their executions in the field. A
total of 3,000 men spread across four geographical zones. My film
traces their movements during a fiver-year period. It’s worth
mentioning that of these 3,000 men only 200 went to trial and a handful
was put to death.
The Einsatzgruppen were responsible for one and a half million
victims: How is it that this part of history remains unknown?
Historians have
largely devoted their research to the extermination of Western European
Jews in death camps. Many films have been shot in the East, but
focusing on localized events. This genocide has never been addressed in
its entirety for a very simple reason : until the fall Berlin Wall, the
relevant archives were inaccessible.
How did you
organise your work? |
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A shock film on a little known extermination episode
of Eastern European Jews by Nazis
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It began with a great
deal of writing: I send France 2 a more than 60 page-long project. Then I
started digging into the archives, starting with those in Washington,
where all the known documents have been centralised. This first search
gave me some clues, which I studied with the Latvian archivist Kristine
Sniedze, who speaks Russian and Ukrainian and who is completely familiar
with the region. It was not too difficult to find the massacre’s
survivors, who had either written [about their experience] or had been
quoted in other works. However, to find the witnesses and the
perpetrators, we had to rely on fixers. The shooting was relatively short
but extremely intense. In all, I worked on this for two years, doing the
best I could. I owe France 2 a big thank you for allowing me to say
everything in two 90-minute films, even if originally it was supposed to
be one single film. When I returned from the Ukraine it seemed impossible
to me to treat the entire story in just one hour and a half. I did not
want to rush, to speak too quickly for lack of time. I have come away
from these two years completely drained, marked for life.
You found
some images that you would never have thought existed.
Yes, particularly of the
Babi Yar massacre. A small, but particularly striking role of film. We
were also surprised to find so many colour photographs in Germany, in
Austria; even historians ignored the existence of some of them. I am
happy if I was able to provide them with new information. Obviously I
hope the film helps flush out the facts. The testimonies of former Nazis
seem critical to this end.
To collect
these testimonies you acquired a list of names of people who were
investigated in the 1960s, you called them one-by-one, pretending to be
the grandson of an Einsatzgruppen soldier and filmed them with a hidden
camera. For this kind of subject, can documentary ethics accommodate
deception?
The question is
absolutely legitimate. France 2 supported me in my approach. Now, if
there should be a trial that weighs crimes against humanity against image
rights, I would find the situation very interesting.
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DISCOVERY
French Army digitises German archives
The French ‘Defence Institute for Communication and Audiovisual Production’ (ECPAD) has, since 2005, laboured to preserve and digitise the entirety of its records, which comprise 3 million photographs and 22,000 films. Among the archives are German documents from World War II, which will soon be the subject of a documentary. This documentary project was pitched at the Sofia Rendezvous and was picked up by ARD-MDR and Germany’s LEVISION, who have committed to a co-production deal.
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Paris in June 1940 and Tripoli in February
1941: Two rare personal accounts from
ECPAD’s German archives
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In April 1945 the Allied Forces split a collection of images made by Minister Goebbels’
propaganda companies -a priceless spoil of the war. "The Propaganda
Kompanien followed the German
army wherever it went," explains Violaine Challeat-Fonck, curator
and head of the archives office at ECPAD. “They hired talented
professionals and supplied them with the best equipment (Leica for the
photographers and Arriflex for the cameramen), which explains the very
high quality found in this image bank.” The share that was brought to
France comprises 350,000photographs and just over 1,000 film rolls. The
images show the occupation of France, as well as the PolandCampaign of
1939, the Wehrmacht’s presence in Italy,fighting from the Eastern
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front,
and even the
construction of the Atlantic wall. Under the three-year plan (which has just been renewed) to preserve
its collection, ECPAD has already digitised 15,000 stills and a few
hundreds films. These documents are already available for viewing, free
of charge, at Fort d'Ivry-sur-Seine.
"Because this project’s aims is to make
the collection available to the public, we decided not to proceed in
chronological order, thus quickly satisfying the interests of
everyone,” says Violaine Challeat. “The 500,000 photographs and 9,000
films saved so far deal with the two Great Wars, the process of
decolonisation, and the operations conducted by the French army during
the 1980s.” |
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The ECPAD’s collection covers a period from
Photographic and Cinematographic Sections’ (SPCA) creation, to the
present. Established in 2001 as a public institution, ECPAD counts among
its staff about a dozen reporters who can be summoned at any moment to
cover the French Army’s operations, be they of a combat or humanitarian
nature.
ECPAD’s other funding sources include
disbursements from agencies working under the Ministry of Defence, the
Army’s Information and Public Relations Services (SIRPA) in particular,
as well as private donors. In addition to its preservation work, ECPAD
has just struck a deal with the company La Cuisine aux Images
Productions for a film project incorporating the bulk of the German
archives.
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