On the program: new, “live”, series, compulsive, rugby, war, children, shared humanity… The largest documentary film festival in France, Fipadoc, opened on Friday 20 January in Biarritz with a cine-concert, the world premiere of “29 173 NM”. Until January 28, the festival hosts nearly 200 works from 50 countries. Interview with President Anne Georget.
RFI : The Festival got off to a brilliant start with an immersive documentary allowing us to relive the crazy adventure of skipper Thomas Ruyant during the Vendée Globe 2020. The images and sounds of this world tour on the oceans were captured by a unique device installed at board by artist Molecule. The latter remixed the music live during the screening of the film. One hundred years after the era of silent cinema, the cinema live “, is it a genre likely to return to theaters ?
Anne-Georget : It’s a way of creating a dialogue between genres. We know how important music is in the writing of cinema, including in documentary cinema. It’s a way of creating the event, a way of offering a unique experience, a live mix. Perhaps the concert will be reproduced, but it will never be the same.
The 2023 edition of the festival coincides with “ The Year of the Documentary which will be launched on Monday January 23, precisely at Fipadoc. Fipadoc, what more can it do to advance documentaries? ?
The Year of Documentary is a wonderful opportunity to shine the spotlight on this genre which is both culturally and cinematically important. Yes, documentaries are really films, and it’s really a genre in its own right that uses all the grammar of cinema. We are going to show how important documentaries are for deciphering the world. And we’re going to tell stories like only cinema can.
At Fipadoc, professionals address the issues of creation, production, distribution, themes, audiences, platforms… What do you consider to be the main challenge for French documentaries in 2023? ?
This year, the biggest challenge for documentaries is partly that of cinema in general. We are coming out of two very difficult years with the Covid. Audiences are starting to return to theaters. It is a real issue. Because habits were taken during these two years when the public was sometimes cloistered at home. We have to give back the taste of going out, of seeing films together on the big screen. That’s what the festival is about too. Restore taste, desire, joy. I think it complements the documentaries that are shown on television. I refuse to oppose the two. These are two completely complementary experiences, because you don’t always have a cinema next to your home. And television is bringing a whole lot of programming and offering real stories into the homes that are very important.
The two words series ” and “ documentaries were long perceived almost as contradictory. Today, documentary series have become a genre in their own right, programmed at Fipadoc even in theaters during marathon sessions. What happened ?
We looked around us, and we and our loved ones have all experienced these marathon sessions of viewing fiction series on platforms, for example. And we have seen this year emerge at Fipadoc the existence of documentary series of very high quality. So what do we do ? Do we program one or two episodes out of five or six existing in the series? We decided to give it a try. We will see how the public reacts to these marathon viewings where you can swallow a whole series. And we’ll see if the industry continues to offer us series of this quality. Perhaps we will move on to a selection that will be competitive? Currently, this is not the case. But it’s clearly a new type of writing and almost compulsive viewing.
We are therefore going to screen five documentary series in their entirety in theaters, including a completely historical series. 1942 tells how, in both hemispheres, civilians live in war, experience war. belly of the beast describes the “Jersey System”, hundreds of child sexual abuse cases on the island of Jersey in the early 2000s. The Outreau affair is not so far, a series in four episodes which looks back on this incredible legal fiasco. Among these series, we discover very innovative forms that mix fiction. It’s very exciting.
You have selected nearly 200 works from 50 countries. From the African continent, you show, among other things, Free Moneyco-directed by Kenyan filmmaker Sam Soko and American filmmaker Lauren Defilippo.
Free Money is competing in the Impact category. It’s a very interesting film that allows you to reflect on the help provided by a whole host of NGOs, on material aid, etc. There, an American NGO proposed the establishment of a system that offers money with which people can do whatever they want. It is very interesting to see how Defilippo and Soko took on the subject, with a critical approach. It’s a film shot over several years, so it allows, with hindsight, to see what happens.
► FIPADOC, the international documentary film festival, from January 20 to 28 in Biarritz