2024-02-08 17:23:41
► We must wage a media and cultural battle
Denis Gravouil, cinematographer and former general secretary of the CGT-spectacles
These phenomena of control or abuse of power exercised by an authority, revealed by the Matzneff affair or by the testimony of Judith Godrèche, exist throughout society. They are amplified in cinema to the extent that the director or producer, as we saw with Harvey Weinstein, has a right of life and death over a person’s career. And this is all the more true with young actresses or beginning actors who have to prove themselves and find themselves in a position of great fragility vis-à-vis the person who directs them.
There has long been special legislation for employing minors in cinema. For a child under 16 to work on a film, an exemption must be obtained and certain obligations must be met, in particular reduced hours, compliance with schooling, physical and psychological protection. The youngest are also most often accompanied by a coach who also acts as a tutor.
Public aid allocated by the CNC is linked to these obligations. In the case of Catherine Corsini’s film, it was because the production had not previously declared a sex scene in which a minor was involved that some of the aid was suspended. Which leads to another debate: that of the presence of intimacy coordinators on set. It’s the equivalent of a stunt adjuster, who is there to ensure that the actors are not put in danger, but for the sex scenes.
It’s a profession that has developed a lot in Canada and the United States but not yet in France because it supposedly calls into question the director’s ability to direct the scene. For me, it is still a trusted third party who can guarantee that the minor consents to what he is being forced to do.
It is essential to ensure that when a 15-year-old actor is hired, he or she is protected in the workplace. Obviously this will never prevent a phenomenon of influence occurring outside of filming. I believe that in this area we have a collective responsibility to move society forward on these issues. Rolling back this type of practice requires a media and cultural battle. And I am sometimes surprised to still see resistance in the community on these subjects. We need this type of business, and I salute the courage of Judith Godrèche and Adèle Haenel, to progress in this area.
We can no longer accept the impunity enjoyed by certain directors or actors because of their status or their notoriety, as in the Depardieu case. This in no way gives them any right over the young people who work with them. Many recommendations have been made to prevent sexist and sexual violence in cinema. Things are progressing particularly with the younger generations.
► The company has set a ban that it must enforce
Marie Mercier, senator (LR) from Saône-et-Loire
Awareness has emerged in recent years, in society as a whole and not just in the world of cinema. I think dramatic situations can occur again, but at least we have set a clear societal prohibition. We have changed the law since #MeToo, by setting an age threshold below which it is illegal to have sexual relations with a minor. It is now clearly established that an adult who has sexual relations with a minor under the age of 15 commits a crime. The minor no longer has to prove that he did not consent.
This is considerable progress, which seems self-evident today, but was only obtained after heated debates. We must measure the progress made since then. For example, I remember in 2017, right after #MeToo, we created a transpartisan working group in the Senate. In this context, I organized a first working meeting on sexual violence against children. Some of my colleagues came to thank me discreetly at the end of the discussions, telling me that they had just understood what had happened to them many years earlier, which clearly illustrates how important the weight of silence was.
However, there is still much to accomplish, and in particular to make the law known in order to enforce the societal ban placed on minors. We also need to educate their parents. Historically, some people have pushed their children into toxic relationships, or didn’t want to know what was happening, but I’m convinced that these cases are rare. Most often, parents simply do not talk about sexuality with their children because they do not know how to go about it or out of modesty. Also, we need awareness campaigns, to send the message that we must tell a child, even a small one, that no one has the right to touch them without their consent, that violence is never permitted.
I also see a gap between everything that we, politicians, have constructed on the criminal level that I have just described, and our incapacity to think about a real policy for sex education at school. However, it would be imperative that some major benchmarks be given during the three annual sessions planned by the school programs. However, these rarely take place and we do not always have speakers capable of delivering a speech adapted to each age…
I am thinking, finally, of our inability to regulate access to online pornography. For years, with others, I have been fighting for better age control for Internet users. However, nothing ever progresses. There is always one argument or another for doing nothing, and, in the meantime, entire generations become accustomed to degrading images of toxic sexuality. How can we be surprised, then, that young people will accept anything, when pornography is the only example given to them?
#protect #teenagers #set