2009 Scam Day Scam Day
Ask for the programme!
Faced with the "crisis" this year at Lussas, the Scam (French Society of Multimedia Authors) has chosen to make a commitment, make a commitment to understand, analyse, explain. This is the first role of documentary - a tool of information, analysis, reflection, culture - such as Rossellini dreamed of for television in Rome at the beginning of the sixties: a pedagogical, hence political, tool. To analyse the crisis and reflect on its causes, the Scam has chosen the theme "Money" on a hint by Régis Debray (1). The god money, this adored master, is at the heart of the tremors shaking the current world.
Come and see the 1996 documentary Journal intime des affaires en cours. Denis Robert is the journalist, Philippe Harel is behind the camera. They show us the ravages caused in France, our republic, by the god money. Has the situation changed since this date? Probably not if we look at a film shot ten years later Delta, Oil’s Dirty Business by Yorgos Avgeropoulos, screened for the first time in France. It is a documentary by Greek public television on the damage caused in the Niger delta by the major petroleum companies. Money is pillaging a territory and the ethnic groups who live on it are the victims. Also victims are the employees, workers and management, of Metaleurop, fired without severance pay. The globalised god-money has abandoned a site whose pollution affects an entire swath of northern France. Jean-Michel Meurice and Christian Dauriac filmed an enquiry in 2003 entitled L’Éléphant, la Fourmi et l’État. Come and see also UBS: le cauchemar américain by Steven Artels and Jean-Daniel Bohnenblust (2008). This production by the Swiss-French Television, never shown in France, will allow you to understand how the dominion of the god money caused the financial collapse of one of the biggest Swiss banks: subprimes, risky investments, the thirst for rapid gain: everything is analysed by the two authors. Finally come and see Lobbying au-delà de l’enveloppe by Myriam Tonelotto (2003). This documentary by the German company NDR and Arte demonstrates the mechanics of lobbying, this new presentable and clean form of corruption. Here again, money reigns but adopts the appearance of democratic transparency, our capacity to exercise our own citizenship being the prime victim. Is lobbying the ultimate form of democracy? How can a collectively managed society like the Scam continue to defend the authors it represents in the kingdom of money when our means are so limited in the face of such enormous investments? We only dispose of our convictions, our ideological point of view, our militant commitment. Is it sufficient? We will debate the subject following the screening of this documentary. This cycle of the "God money" has already been programmed at Caen. It will be shown at Lille, Brest, Toulouse and Strasbourg in the coming months in an attempt to increase public awareness of the Scam.
Next year, we will move back to projecting the films financed by our "Brouillon d'un rêve" seed fund, which expresses another form of commitment, allowing authors to continue to make documentaries, these toolboxes for understanding the world.
Guy Seligmann, president of the Scam
(1) Chief editor of the review Médium L'Argent maître, (N° 16/17 July-December 2008).
Guests : Day presented by Jean-Marie Drot and Guy Seligmann. Debates with the participation of Jean-Michel Meurice, Steven Artels, Jean-Daniel Bohnenblust, Denis Robert, Myriam Tonelotto, led by Dominique Rousset, journalist and producer at France Culture.