For a documentary to be broadcast on TV, does it absolutely have to have a public figure attached to it? After Mariana Mazza, who earlier this week focused on the overconsumption of clothing, comedian Phil Roy will present later this fall The weight of appearance, on eating disorders. The presence of these stars undoubtedly has the merit of highlighting social issues, but some doubt that these well-known faces bring added value to the content.
“I am sure that stars who associate themselves with documentaries do so in good faith. But it’s a big mistake on the part of broadcasters to think that if we don’t put stars in documentaries, people won’t be interested in them. We underestimate the intelligence of the public,” says documentary filmmaker Jules Falardeau, who criticizes the lack of audacity of television broadcasters. He himself says he has proposed a few projects for TV in the past, all of which were rejected.
This frequent recourse to stardom when the time comes to tackle any social subject for television, Jules Falardeau already denounced in an article published in 2018. Suffice to say that the omnipresence is not new. public figures in TV documentaries raises eyebrows.
But in recent years, we sometimes have the impression that the phenomenon has continued to grow. Just in the last few months, we have seen Claude Legault, a fan of the history of the Second World War, at the helm of the second season of 39-45 on Canadian soil at TV5. Dany Turcotte drove The last cupboard. Aging happilyon the taboo of sexual orientation in seniors’ residences, a subject that was personally close to his heart.
Marie-Lyne Joncas surprised more by taking an interest in For us at home to a question at first glance rather far from his field of expertise: the management of natural resources in Quebec. As for Véronique Cloutier, she was at the helm of The rumor machine. This series son the gossip industry was released a year after the mega-success of its series Loto-Ménowhich received such a stir that Quebec was pushed to expand access to bioidentical hormones to treat menopause.
“I’m not saying that it wouldn’t have had an impact without Véro. But having her carry the documentary probably accelerated things. The presence of a star brings ratings, that’s for sure. It also leads viewers to be interested in a subject that they might not normally have been interested in,” says Louis-Philippe Drolet, general director of the KOTV production company.
The importance of the personal quest
KOTV, whose president is Louis Morissette, has produced several documentary series around public figures for the Véro.tv section of TOU.TV. Projects led by Véronique Cloutier, of course, but also by Boucar Diouf, Varda Étienne and even Bianca Gervais.
No broadcaster put pressure on KOTV to add one of these stars to a project already underway, says Louis-Philippe Drolet. “It never happened that we were told: ‘We will accept your idea if this or that star joins the project.’ »
“On the contrary, it is always the star who first offers us a subject that is close to her heart, and then we decide whether to get on board or not. Boucar comes with his ideas, Bianca too… When you know Véro, you know that making a documentary on menopause or on gossip comes from her,” he assures.
However, what is the degree of involvement of public figures in these productions? Very variable, no doubt. But they are certainly not as invested as Richard Desjardins was in The boreal errorthe shock documentary on forest industry practices that he co-directed in 1999. Most of the people who carry a documentary are not credited as director, producer, screenwriter or researcher.
“When it starts from a personal quest, as for Roy Dupuis with After the Roman, I don’t have a problem with that. We know that in Roy’s case, it was a cause in which he was involved before and which is close to his heart. Obviously, this is not a self-serving gesture on his part. For me, that gives him legitimacy to talk about this issue. […] Where I have a problem is when we use the visibility of a star to increase ratings. For me, at this moment, it is no longer a documentary, but a show business », believes documentary filmmaker Hugo Latulippe.
Good old TV
Previously a producer, Hugo Latulippe has in the past been very critical of the influence of the Quebec star system in the content of documentaries. In 2018, however, he directed the documentary Troll the trolls by Pénélope McQuade, on the online bullying of which several public figures like her are victims. A legitimate project, according to him, since it started from a personal quest of the host.
But Hugo Latulippe continues to think that the contribution of a known face to a documentary is largely overestimated by broadcasters. “Television is changing, but the people who run the channels in Quebec are a little behind everything that is happening, particularly in Europe. The reality is that the idea that a documentary needs a star to work is a bit of a thing of the past,” says the man who is now the general director of the Quebec City Film Festival. .
Karine Dubois does not share this observation. Producer of several documentaries for TV, she can only recognize that having a star as headliner completely changes the situation. “I don’t want to blame broadcasters, who have audience ratings targets ahead of advertisers. Because it’s true that having a star comes with better ratings. It also makes things a lot easier for promotion. Without a star, it’s difficult to be invited to talk shows,” notes the president of Picbois Productions.
More visibility, less depth
His box is among other things behind Essentials, a documentary broadcast last winter on Télé-Québec on the fate of seasonal workers. Hosting: the journalist from Duty Sarah R. Champagne and activist Sonia Djelidi. No stars, therefore, this time: a deliberate choice by the production, which preferred to favor content rather than visibility.
“Our documentary probably would have had better ratings if it had been associated with someone famous, but it certainly wouldn’t have had the same depth. The star’s salary is money that doesn’t go elsewhere: into research, into production… With Essentials, we were able to release previously unpublished figures which are today cited in the parliamentary committee on immigration. If we had had to pay a fee from the Union of Artists, we would never have had the backs strong enough to dig up all these figures,” illustrates Karine Dubois.