2012 Regional Aid Funds Supporting Documentary Regional Aid Funds Supporting Documentary
Thursday, August 23 at 2:30 pm, Room 1
For the first year at the États généraux du film documentaire, a public meeting is being organised around the support given by regional and local authorities to documentary film. Appearing in 1983 following the laws decentralising the French state, regional aid funds are accessible by producers in all French regions. Numerous departments and some municipal governments have also engaged in this kind of support.
Regional authorities play an ever increasing role in the economics of cinema. If the support offered by territorial funds appears sometimes close to that of other existing funds and share some of the same demands, they differ in their relation to local territory. The documentary genre provides a good example to the extent that this relation to specific terrains is cultivated not only by the local and regional authorities but also by the directors, production companies and media. Regional and local governments assert their role as partner. This territorial dimension is expressed as much in the projects and their local grounding as in the shared desire that projects receiving support should be distributed as widely as possible, and also that they may be seen by the local population. This is also a means to reaffirm the local roots of the aided films.
If the regional funds have this relation to local territory as one of their characteristics, the means of support are widely varied and show a capacity to make their systems evolve to take into account different mutations of practice in terms of direction, production and distribution. The technological possibilities opened up by digital technology, the diversity of styles and approaches, the multidisciplinary aspect of works are among the issues at the heart of reflection under way among the regional and local authorities.
This meeting will present an overview of documentary support policies, their current issues in terms of direction, production and distribution.
Meeting organised in partnership with the Conseil général de l'Ardèche and the Rhône-Alpes Region.