2018 Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée
From the very first images shot by the Lumière brothers, cinema was documentary. Their cameramen were despatched all over the world from 1896 to set up their cameras in a city and film whatever came into their frame. But already, they had to choose an angle, invent a language, a point of view on the world. From these early times, documentary has always fully played its central role: speak of our society, shed light on our relationship with the world, reveal its complexity.
The particular place of documentary in cinema and French society called for the creation of the Cinémathèque du documentaire, presided by the filmmaker Julie Bertuccelli. Ardèche Images, which has developed, a pole of documentary excellence in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, naturally belongs to the network of this new cinemathèque.
Although the CNC has always supported documentary cinema, we also wanted to encourage its distribution on digital platforms, making it possible for the general public to discover the diversity of documentary creation. Hence, we have supported the Tënk documentary platform, entirely devoted to creative documentary, during all the first stages of its development. We have given it access to our documentary film catalogue, Images de la culture.
This year, the États généraux du film documentaire at Lussas are celebrating their thirtieth anniversary. It has become a key event, a reference, which every year since 1989 has brought together professionals and the public curious to discover our cinematic heritage as well as new forms of documentary creation.
In this year 2018 when the influence of documentary radiates everywhere, I wish a very happy anniversary to the États généraux and thank Pascale Paulat, Christophe Postic, their team as well as all the members of the association Ardèche Images for their action in favour of documentary cinema.
Frédérique Bredin
Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC) President