Behind the scenes
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During the 30th edition of the film event dedicated to queer cultures, members of the jury tried to exclude one of their pairs because of her political affinities with Caroline Fourest. An archetypal and worrying controversy, against a backdrop of political exploitation, ideological sectarianism and the importation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The festival was shaping up wonderfully well for its thirtieth anniversary. Despite continued timid support from public authorities, Chéries-Chéris screened again this year in Paris, from November 15 to 26, some 150 films from all over the world, in front of 19,000 spectators, once again celebrating the queer cultures and its values of tolerance, emancipation, inclusion. A moment of harmony, in short. And suddenly, the festival became, in bulk: “Tuesday, Zionist, Wednesday, anti-Semitic. I have the impression that in four days, we have managed to accuse us of being anti-feminists, antiquated, homophobic, absolutely everything and its opposite”summarizes the artistic director of the event, Grégory Tilhac. Acid throwing is unfortunately routine in the ultra-polarized post-October 7 society. Except that these attracted the attention of the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, as well as the president of the Ile-de-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, threatening the very survival of this festival, one of the most emblematic bastions of progressive values.
Grégory Tilhac had felt the tension rising. Eight days before the start of the festivities, the management received an internal petition, launched by four members of the jury (there are seventeen in all, all sections combined) and six cinema personalities invited to the event, expressing indignation at the presence, among the jurors, of
