2017 The Cinémathèque du documentaire The Cinémathèque du documentaire
Friday, 25
2:30 pm: closed-door meeting with partners, Salle de la mairie
6:15 pm: public presentation, Salle Cinéma
As an echo chamber to society, reflecting all its hopes, dreams and concerns, documentary creation is extraordinarily effervescent. It attracts an ever-growing public. In cinemas, on television, on the internet, each day it enriches an exceptionally diverse collection of views, styles and forms.
The showing of these works is an important issue. In all regions, numerous players have been long mobilised to screen documentary. On the initiative of Julie Bertucelli, then President, La Scam (Civil Society of Multimedia Authors) has worked towards federating these actions, making them more visible and creating a body for exchange and coordination.
On 25 August, 2016, by announcing at Lussas the creation of the Cinémathèque du documentaire with the support of the CNC, Audrey Azoulay, then Minister of Culture and Communication, gave this dream some substance.
Shortly following her nomination, Françoise Nyssen, new Minister of Culture, comprehended all that was at stake and materialized the project at Cannes on 26 May, 2017, during a signing session with all the partners.
The Cinémathèque du documentaire will have the missions of contributing to the survey and identification of films, encouraging their circulation by making shared acquisitions, publicizing the different actors of the network, being a source of proposals. It will have a Parisian base within the Bibliothèque publique d’information, which will ensure the regular programming of documentary films.
The creation of this Cinémathèque du documentaire forcefully stamps the desire by public authorities to allow documentary to be present in the public space and to fully play the central role which it has played since the beginnings of cinema: capture the Real, enlighten the present and liberate the imagination.
In order to present this project and reflect together on its development, two meetings: a period of exchange reserved for official partners during the afternoon followed by a presentation open to the public.