Documentary Round Table #1 - Where are the documentary classics?

To mark the Year of the Documentary initiated by the Cinémathèque du Documentaire in January, the MIFC convened a number of players involved in heritage documentary issues to answer a multi-dimensional question: where are the documentary classics? In a round table discussion moderated by Pierre-Alexis Chevit (Head of Cannes Docs), Alice Lesort, Pauline Girardot Chevaucheur, Moïra Chappedelaine-Vautier, Markus Ruff and Anne Moutot took the floor.

Framing documentary heritage: an attempt to define heritage documentary

Knowing where to find documentary heritage starts with defining what it is. For Anne Moutot of La cinémathèque du documentaire, heritage documentaries are opposed to recent creations, and are part of the past. A characteristic shared by the rest of the table, including Arsenal's Markus Ruff.

For the German speaker, heritage documentaries tell the story of their time, and can be used to talk about ours. "They bear witness to their time, and should be preserved for that reason," adds Moïra Chappedelaine-Vautier of Ciao Films. This opinion is illustrated by an extract from Fort du Conquet destruction des archives Vautier, in which the audience was able to discover René Vautier confronted with the vandalism of the room containing his archives in 1983, when some of his films were to be used in a trial between Jean-Marie Le Pen and Le Canard Enchaîné. For his daughter, now in charge of his archives, there was an "absolute desire to silence these images".

For Pauline Girardot Chevaucheur of Documentaire sur grand écran, heritage documentaries must be recognized as an art form, not just as a historical archive. In this sense, every film deserves to be considered a classic, according to Alice Lesort of Les Films du Losange. It's up to broadcasters and distributors to turn them into classics.

Documentary heritage, a multiple burden

It remains to be seen where documentary heritage is physically located, and in what condition. It can sometimes be part of a family heritage, as in the case of Moïra Chappedelaine-Vautier, or belong to an international heritage, as in the case of the works restored by Arsenal. Restoration, digitization and presentation are then combined," explains Markus Ruff, "to accompany them in the best possible way. To make his point, the Arsenal division manager presents an extract from Sudesha, a 1983 documentary directed by Deepa Dhanraj. Part of a series of eight films on women's work in India, this documentary was restored after a lot of hard work to find existing copies. It then had to be digitized and presented. Today, the documentary is available online.

Multitasking when it comes to documentary heritage is a necessity. Documentaire sur grand écran, for example, takes care of the conditions required to protect copies, while supporting distributors. At Les Films du Losange, independent rights holders are supported in their endeavors, alongside restoration projects managed by the company. Funding can also be split between the CNC and independent partners.

Then there's the question of how to distribute heritage documentaries. For Anne Moutot, the first objective is to promote heritage documentaries, to make them accessible nationwide. The Cinémathèque du documentaire thus helps to identify documentary films, and seeks to pool all players in the sector to better reference heritage works and assist with their restoration, programming and distribution. To this end, it is a partner of the "Film-Documentaire.fr" platform. Finally, Alice Lesort affirms the importance of distribution within the broad framework of heritage cinema, and therefore of heritage documentaries. For her, the success of one work echoes others, and a re-release can lead to retrospectives and requests for the rest of an author's filmography. As an example, she cites the 2022 re-release of Jean Eustache's The Mother and The Whore, followed by interest in the filmmaker's entire oeuvre, particularly in the United States.

Connecting players: a major challenge for documentary heritage

When asked about the future of their projects, the speakers at the round table returned to the various issues at stake in their practice. For Moïra Chappedelaine-Vautier, the next stage in her restoration work concerns video heritage, succeeding the film films in her possession.

For her part, Pauline Girardot Chevaucheur points to the need for clarity in terms of restoration and distribution tools. In response, Anne Moutot explains: "The Cinémathèque du documentaire intends to position itself as a forum for dialogue between the various entities involved in heritage documentaries. The institution aims to become a springboard, fostering synergies between all documentary heritage entities.