For a documentary to be broadcast on television, does it necessarily have to be associated with a public figure? Following Mariana Mazza’s focus on clothing overconsumption earlier this week, comedian Phil Roy will present “The Weight of Appearance,” about eating disorders, later this fall. The presence of these stars undoubtedly has the virtue of highlighting social issues, but some question whether these well-known faces add value to the content.
“I am sure that stars who engage in 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. “We underestimate the intelligence of the audience,” says documentary filmmaker Jules Falardeau, who criticizes the TV channels’ lack of audacity. He himself says that he has suggested a few projects for television in the past, but they were all rejected.
Jules Falardeau previously denounced this frequent resort to fame when it comes time to cover a social issue for television in a 2018 article. Suffice it to say, ubiquity is nothing new. Public figures in television documentaries raise eyebrows.
But in recent years one has sometimes had the impression that the phenomenon is increasing. Only in the last few months have we been able to see Claude Legault, a fan of World War II history, at the helm of the second season of 39-45 on Canadian soil on TV5. Dany Turcotte directed The Last Closet. Aging gays, about the taboo of sexual orientation in retirement homes, a topic that is personally close to his heart.
Marie-Lyne Joncas was even more surprising when, in “Pour nous chez nous,” she focused on a question that at first glance seems rather far removed from her area of expertise: the management of natural resources in Quebec. Véronique Cloutier was at the helm of The Rumor Machine. This series about the gossip industry came a year after the mega-success of the Loto Méno series, which was so well-received that it pushed Quebec to expand access to bioidentical hormones to treat menopause.
“I’m not saying it wouldn’t have had an impact without Véro. But her carrying the documentary probably sped things up. The presence of a star brings reviews, that’s for sure. It also makes viewers interested in a topic that they would not normally be interested in,” says Louis-Philippe Drolet, general director of the KOTV production company.
The Importance of Personal Search
KOTV, whose president is Louis Morissette, has produced several documentary series about 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 that was already underway, says Louis-Philippe Drolet. “It has 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 topic that is close to his heart and then we decide whether to participate or not. Boucar brings his ideas, Bianca too… If you know Véro, you know that the production of a documentary about menopause or about gossip comes from her,” he assures.
But what is the level of involvement of public figures in these productions? Undoubtedly very variable. But all of them are certainly not as committed as Richard Desjardins was to “The Boreal Error,” the shocking documentary about forestry practices that he co-directed in 1999, either as director, producer, screenwriter or researcher.
“If it comes from a personal search, like Roy Dupuis did with Après la Romaine, I have no problem with it. We know that in Roy’s case it was a cause he had previously committed to and was close to his heart. Obviously, this is not a self-serving gesture on his part. For me, that gives him the legitimacy to talk about this topic. […] I have a problem when we use star visibility to increase ratings. For me at this moment it is no longer a documentary, but show business,” believes documentary filmmaker Hugo Latulippe.
Good old TV
As a former producer, Hugo Latulippe has in the past been very critical of the influence of the Quebec star system on the content of documentaries. However, in 2018, he directed Pénélope McQuade’s documentary Troller les trolls, which is about online bullying that several public figures like her fall victim to. In his opinion, it was a legitimate project because it was based on a personal search by the host.
But Hugo Latulippe continues to believe that the contribution of a well-known face to a documentary is largely overestimated by broadcasters. “Television is changing, but the people who run the stations in Quebec are a little behind everything that’s happening, especially 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 general director of the Quebec City Film Festival.
Karine Dubois does not share this observation. As a producer of several documentaries for television, she can only see that having a star as a headliner completely changes the situation. “I don’t want to blame the broadcasters because they have higher ratings than the advertisers. Because it is true that a star corresponds to better ratings. It also makes transportation much easier. Without a star, it is difficult to be invited to talk shows,” notes the president of Picbois Productions.
More visibility, less depth
His company is behind, among other things, Essentiels, a documentary about the fate of seasonal workers that was broadcast on Télé-Québec last winter. Moderation: Le Devoir journalist Sarah R. Champagne and activist Sonia Djelidi. That’s why there are no stars this time: a conscious decision by the production, which preferred content rather than visibility.
“Our documentary probably would have had better ratings if it had been associated with a famous person, 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 Essentiels we were able to publish new figures that will be quoted today in the parliamentary immigration committee. If we had had to pay a fee from the artists’ association, we would never have had the strength to dig up all these numbers,” explains Karine Dubois.