What motivated you to tackle this subject in a documentary?
Daniel Kupferstien : I settled 50km from Béziers around when Robert Ménard took over as town hall, in 2014. He was one of the founders of reporters without borders, I still had the image of him as someone attached to freedom of expression, and out of curiosity I went to attend a municipal council meeting. There, I heard him attack a journalist from Midi Libre in a completely disproportionate manner and announce that he was going to file a complaint against her and her editorial staff. It caught my attention and I wanted to dig a little deeper.
This is where you come across the city’s municipal bulletin, which also appeals to you…
Yes and I quickly realized that it was not a classic municipal newspaper which praises the opening of the new library or that sort of thing, but a real ideological propaganda tool. So I surrounded myself with experts to analyze it. And I used it as a basis to interview opponents, residents and analyze Robert Ménard’s exercise of power.
What mainly shocked you in this Biterrois newspaper?
For example, almost all the children shown are blond, while the majority of children in Béziers are brown. There is also name denunciation of journalists, notably denounced as bad journalists. We also find elements of hatred of foreigners, particularly of Muslims, when he denounces in particular that 64.6% of schoolchildren are Muslim based on their name.
Film debates: Wednesday January 8 at 8 p.m. at the Vox in Chasseneuil, Thursday January 9 at 8:30 p.m. at La Halle aux grains in La Rochefoucauld, Friday January 10 at 8:30 p.m. at the Capitole in Confolens.
