2015 Conseil général de l’Ardèche Conseil général de l’Ardèche
For twenty-seven years already, documentary film has set up its summer residence in Lussas thanks to the wonderful energy dispensed by professionals, volunteers, elected officials and enthusiasts who join their efforts to make the États généraux du film documentaire the high quality event that honours us. Lussas’ reputation extends well beyond our borders.
In Ardèche “we are (also) documentary.”
Because the economic crisis and our country’s financial situation inevitably lead us to review our policies, to do better with less, in other words to preserve the essential, we reaffirm with even more conviction our choice to support the documentary industry and, beyond, to maintain our support in favour of the entire range of cultural actors. For without them, our rural regions are irretrievably condemned to a slow death.
Because we are intimately convinced that our society needs the vision of the world and of oneself provided by professional documentary filmmakers, we are resolutely engaged by their side and support the call of 1800 professionals from the creative documentary industry for a true public policy in the sector. We participate in this effort via our support for production but also for distribution: what would the vision of a filmmaker be without that of a spectator?
We invest in the projects of the Village Documentaire at Lussas. In the near future, professionals will benefit from postproduction facilities adapted to their demand for the highest quality. The project for a digital platform for documentary viewing excites me because it responds to the double challenge of distributing documentary to a wider public and of supporting documentary creation. This digital platform will also be yours for I have no doubt that each of us, in proportion to our means, will respond to the call for participative fund raising for the project.
My best wishes extend to all the participants in a week of intensely rich debates and encounters.
Hervé Saulignac
President of the conseil général de l’Ardèche