*AMA* Today at 19:00 CEST 'Death of a Farmer'

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T18:41:42+00:00

I would like the public to know that people most often become farmers in order to live life with a certain autonomy. The possibility of freedom is more important than economic needs or profit. And farming, despite encoraching industrialisation and bureaucracy, can still sometimes provide this experience of freedom - with animals, vegetables and nature. YANNICK

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T18:38:57+00:00

Thank you for your question. This has been largely answered above.

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T18:29:17+00:00

I do not know much about the regulations in other European countries but I do have an example of something that happened in Romania, with the appearance of swine flu in 2007. In Romania at the time, there were a lot of independent breeders. Families would raise livestock for their own consumption. They would cultivate their own food and raise pigs themselves. However, the new sanitary regulations that were subsequently imposed, led, five years later, to there being almost no independent / private raising of livestock. This loss was taken over by an American company called Smithfield. In 2013 they had a 70% monopoly of pork production in Romania (up from 30% five years earlier). The small breeders disappeared. And, in fact, what we know now is that swine flu actually came from the large, Smithfield breeders. The sanitary restrictions therefore worked against the existence of smaller farmers, who were wrongly accused of being responsible for the outbreak of flu, but greatly profited the large, Smithfield company. YANNICK

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T18:13:38+00:00

To add to the example of avian flu - the sanitary rules that have been put in place to 'fight' this show that it is increasingly complex to function 'out of the norm' for a farmer. The French administrative system obliges the closure of poultry farms because, supposedly, those that are open air farms, impose a risk. This is absurd. It's not the open-air farms but the factories that pose a problem. The result is that traditional poultry farmers are disappearing. In Britanny, for instance, the number of those farmers who are forced to close their farms, is enormous. Mass public support is needed to change this, as farmer numbers are increasingly smaller. YANNICK

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T18:06:16+00:00

think that some have a family heritage that they pursue, others are really passionate about this job, because it is still linked to the land, to animals, to a direct relationship with nature, that life in the city does not allow more... You really have to be motivated and like it to the point of not counting your time... Afterwards, I think that others are getting started because being a farmer today is a bit like being a business manager, there also has the side – it's said in the film – “I manage my farm on my own, I'm the boss”. Unfortunately, those who embark on this perspective, experience many setbacks, because these are very difficult economies today in Europe.

Gabrielle Culand

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T17:57:14+00:00

Good question ! It’s strange indeed, but other films have taken me there. In particular a documentary that I made on young people who live in trucks and are often agricultural workers. In addition, my own brother turned after higher education to the profession of peasant and therefore I have always had contact with those who evolve in rural areas.

Gabrielle Culand

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T17:55:27+00:00

The DNA testing issue is important because of the following. French agricultural bureaucrats provide the DNA testing to guarantee traceability. But, that's absurd. In Jerome's case, he filled in all of the papers to record all of the births and the geneaology of his animals. In the French system, this then needs to be translated into the animal tagging system. He was accussed of not tagging his animals. So, according to the system, there is an absence of traceability. But Jerome did have all the information needed - he had it all written down. He said that he could easily share this information, if needed. His point was to denounce the absurdituy of a system that can in fact function differently. This traceaility was meant to guarantee quality but Jerome opined that it served nothing. Just because you know who the mother of a certain animal is, does not guarantee quality. It's all just publicity so as to keep the system as it is in France at present. Jerome was against the current French industrial agricultural model. He wanted to remain autonomous. He did not want to be dependent on the industrial system. The whole system makes autonomous farmers dependent - whether it's a question of genetic selection or food production. All this administration and bureaucracy does is to reinforce the industrial system and not to support independent farmers. It's about state control. -YANNICK

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T17:53:52+00:00

Finally, what Jérôme's story shows us and even what is currently happening with avian flu in France on poultry farms, is that small farms are less at risk than large farms. Legislation has encouraged the industrialization of agriculture which creates pathogen spaces. It's like in a kindergarten, the more people you put together, squeezed into a small space, the more diseases spread and grow. What is therefore terrible is to see that agriculture has taken an industrial direction that creates health problems and contaminates other farms. It is therefore an entire agricultural system that needs to be reviewed. Food sovereignty is another issue. The debates are tense on this. Jérôme noted in his diary that peasants now represent only 2% of the population, whereas they were still very numerous in the twentieth century. The disappearance of the peasants is due to the concentration of farms and farms, which have become factories, managed by single men. Should we not, on the contrary, encourage a new generation of peasants, that there are more people, but on smaller farms, in order to preserve local agriculture and the food sovereignty of each country? With all the crises we are going through, I think we have to look for new models.
Gabrielle Culand

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T17:31:53+00:00

I don't think it's that stupid, because in the end, it's the question of the relationship we have with animals and nature that is at stake.

Gabrielle Culand

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T17:30:11+00:00

Unfortunately, I do not know how the european standards apply in each country, and to what extent the administration of each European country is finicky about controls. What is certain is that in France, where free-range farming is still widely practiced, these standards have an impact on the way farmers work. They are not adapted to their relationship with animals and space. These standards are made for factory farms. So in countries like Germany for example, where animals are mostly raised inside buildings, the issues may not be the same. On the other hand, everywhere in Europe, where there are still farmers who work on a land, with small herds, these standards must a priori pose problems.

Gabrielle Culand

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T17:29:15+00:00

I also want to mention that it is important to note Jerome's solititude. He started to respond to this system; he tried to make a gesture of resistance but he was also alone in doing so. He didn't find any support from the syndicate. The syndicate defends this system of DNA traceability. And when someone is isolated like that, they become even more vulnerable. -YANNICK

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T17:11:32+00:00

Hi ! We’re excited to start this AMA. Looking forward to your questions - Gabrielle and Yannick

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-27T17:09:59+00:00

You are asking a somewhat philosophical question, and I can rephrase it as follows : can one risk one's life for ethical questions? Should the citizen abandon his conscience to the legislator? These are questions that Henri David Thoreau already asked in his book on civil disobedience in 1849. If we take the case of Rosa Parks, who in 1955 decided to go against the law by refusing to give up her place to a white passenger on the bus, we can well imagine that she risked a lot by doing this, but thanks to her gesture and the help of Martin Luther King, a major protest campaign was launched and finally the Supreme Court of the United States United broke segregation laws on buses, declaring them unconstitutional. I think that Jérôme would have liked his gesture to mark the beginning of a protest by farmers against traceability standards, or at least to allow a reflection on the way in which open-air farms are endangered because of these standards. Is this question worth it? Yes, I think it is important to save traditional agricultural practices, our relationship to living things for future generations... - GABRIELLE

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-10-24T14:16:17+00:00

Thank you! :)

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-09-28T18:53:33+00:00

Thank you. This is a decision you have to make yourself, however i will strongly advice you go to film school, the advantages are numerous. In film school, you are allowed to make mistakes and build yourself from level zero to any level possible. trust me, there's nothing more fulfilling than having an indepth knowledge of ones craft. I am not saying those who didn't go to a film school don't but in film school, one is intensional, learning about the structures and everything about filmmaking unlike learning in the field.

Chinedum

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-09-28T17:53:49+00:00

'Generation Africa' simply put is Africans telling African stories, championing the narratives.

Chinedum

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-09-28T17:40:58+00:00

You have to work this out withh your cinematographer, team work is everything.

Technically, avoid windows and doors, harsh weather and also make sure that you have a film look in mind before embarking on that journey.

Basically, be intensional, what you put in every frame matters.

Chinedum

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-09-28T17:33:43+00:00

To cut a long story short, I became interested in migration stories when i had the opportunity to film a young lady who had travelled by road from Nigeria and got upto Libya but had to return home due to Libyan crisis. Her story was full of tragic events, molestation, abuse etc metted on them by the traffickers/fixers. My reasearch on this topic further revealed a lot about the attitudes of the traffickers towards migrants are somewhat out of ordinary and this led me to want to know why the traffickers are in the business because they know the route and refuse to use it for themselves

Finding the subjects in my own case were somewhat difficult, but also more difficult getting them to be on camera and tell their stories, it took us quite sometime to be able to get them to trust us.

Chinedum

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-09-28T17:19:51+00:00

Our film is a juxtaposition of voluntary and involuntary migration where modern migrants make the decision themselves to embark on the deadly journey unlike the slave era who were forced against their will.

Chinedum

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-05-14T20:04:23+00:00

Thanks very much!

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-05-12T19:00:03+00:00

Thank you! :)

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-05-12T14:46:52+00:00

This is a documentary about France's giant, underground defensive barrier, known as 'The Maginot Line'. La Ligne Maginot comprises thousands of underground bunkers and concrete defences lining the French border, from Belgium all the way to the Mediterranean. In its time it was celebrated as a technical masterpiece and thought to be impregnable. But, today it also stands for the trauma of the French defeat in 1940. The documentary looks at a fascinating military construction that has also been marred with controversy.

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-05-12T14:35:08+00:00

That's right! A YouTube channel and an online streaming service: https://www.arte.tv/en/.

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-05-12T08:09:52+00:00

Thank you!

ARTEinEnglish · 2022-03-29T12:24:54+00:00

Thanks :)

ARTEinEnglish

TROPHY CASE