🎤 In Conversation with Christine Cauquelin – Canal+

Sunny Side remains, for CANAL+, a key space for meeting documentary talent, discovering new projects, and sharing the editorial vision of our channels. Our goal is to clarify our programming needs, welcome proposals from producers and directors, and foster collaborations with international partners. Each year, we leave with a dozen new projects — RAID, Behind the Legend, Confined in 14–18, Commando Missions, or Blue Carbon: Nature’s Superpower were all born here in the past two years.

Our vision is to promote a wide range of narrative styles and directing techniques. Documentaries often face criticism for being too formally standardized within specific genres. We’re exploring more unexpected formats, like upbeat, pop-style “historical thrillers” (The Theft of the Mona Lisa!), “true crime” stories with unconventional interview formats (The Recluses), or travelogues that blend YouTube-style energy with carefully crafted studio segments. We're also exploring the use of AI to bring history to life. Our motto: maximum creative freedom, without rigid frameworks or editorial constraints.

Presenting your documentary ambitions at Sunny Side of the Doc sends a strong signal to the community. What does this event represent for you?

It’s an opportunity to clarify our editorial needs and expectations, but also to spot emerging talents and innovative formats. The current documentary offer has never been richer or more diverse — our presentation helps producers better assess which projects might align with our editorial line.

AI can be a powerful tool for visualizing what doesn’t exist — especially in historical documentaries. It allows us to recreate the past with greater historical accuracy than traditional dramatized reconstructions. We already use it in several productions (Napoleon III, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Theft of the Mona Lisa!). We've worked closely with production teams to understand and guide its use. The main challenge today is how fast it evolves — between the start and end of a project, creative teams often have to rework sequences to keep up with the technology.

We collaborate mostly on large-scale international events that require investment from multiple territories, or, on the other end of the spectrum, on more niche films that need small pre-buys to complete financing. Additionally, we purchase over 1,000 documentaries each year produced on the international market.