“A lack of courage in the public service”

While France 5 invokes the reserve period before the elections to justify itself, the director of the dance company committed to fighting racism denounces an injunction to remain silent.

Canger, incomprehension. In Marine Brutti’s voice, emotion still boils two days after learning that France 5 was canceling the documentary (The)Horde, revolt in Marseille. A film dedicated to this rebellious and committed dance company, based within the Ballet national de Marseille (BNM), and which the young woman co-directs with Jonathan Debrouwer and Arthur Harel.

Last Wednesday, in fact, in a very succinct press release, the channel announced that it was canceling the broadcast, scheduled for Friday June 28 at 10:40 p.m., “due to current political events and respect for the reserve period linked to the legislative elections”. “France Télévisions prefers not to add to the public debate an element likely to fuel controversy less than forty-eight hours before the election, a few minutes before the reserve period in mainland France and after the reserve period in the overseas territories (i.e. Thursday evening midnight local time)” The direction of the group informed us on Friday, without further comment or explanation.

How a documentary in which we follow the daily life of the dancers, in spring 2023, as they prepare for a performance in the Old Port of their cult show, Room with a View, was he thus able to come under the scrutiny of the France Télévisions ethics committee responsible for evaluating the political content of programs during election periods?

Arm wrestling in front of the camera

Perhaps because of the high-tension context which electrifies the second part of the film, as riots break out across the country, notably in Marseille, following the death of young Nahel, shot dead by the police in June 2023. Caught up as much as revolted by news that echoes their commitment, the dancers of (La)Horde do not want to remain silent. They then express their wish to insert into their show a message in which they commit, on behalf of the Ballet national de Marseille, “against racist violence and totalitarian excesses, so that the unjust system listens to its people and the murders within our republic cease.”

But, in a dramatic turn of events, three hours before the performance, the president of the BNM vetoed the text, in the name of the institution’s necessary neutrality. In front of the camera of director Olivier Lemaire, a standoff between the dancers and the representative of the institution began, which ended, in extremis, with a compromise. A quote from Frantz Fanon – “Let us banish from our land all racism, all forms of oppression and let us work together for the development of man and the enrichment of humanity” – finally appears on the giant screen at the end of the show, while the dancers, lips parted in an angry murmur, brandish a clenched fist.

Today, for the second time, we are being told that we must keep quiet, even though our message is quite simply humanist.

Marine Brutti, director of (La)Horde

For Marine Brutti, this episode testifies to a “vertical power that leads us to silence.” And, in his eyes, the deprogramming of the documentary is a new expression of this. “A year ago, for institutional reasons, we were not completely free to speak. Today, for a second time, we are being told that we must keep quiet, that our speech is problematic, when in fact our message is quite simply humanist. We only advocate republican values ​​by positioning ourselves against violence, against racism and against inequalities.”

Faced with the channel’s decision, the company director puts into perspective the potential political impact that the documentary could have had. “In a sense, this deprogramming gives us a lot of credit because I don’t think that the broadcast of this film could have made the difference at election time. But it is also extremely worrying to see how we gradually accept to fall in line and allow ourselves to be intimidated about what could be ethical or not. By wanting to do well, we all become cowards. » The ethical argument put forward by France Télévisions struggles to convince her: “Why keep quiet about this speech now for reasons of ethics when we feel like we are being bombarded all day long with racist, violent, xenophobic, anti-Semitic remarks, which are the discourse of the extreme right?”

The dancers of the company were able to express this incomprehension collectively on Thursday June 27, during a presentation of the documentary at the Théâtre de la Criée. Faced with the representative of France Télévisions who came to Marseille for the occasion, they reiterated their anger. His justifications, also arguing the flammable context linked to the anniversary of Nahel’s death and the riots of June 2023, left part of the public who came to attend the screening perplexed, as the film’s director, Olivier Lemaire, tells us, present on site.

An ironic deprogramming

He also shares “indignation” of (La)Horde faced with the channel’s decision. Without crying out for censorship, he deplores the“overzealousness and lack of courage of the public service when the time is not for weakness and half-measures, and when private broadcasters do not hesitate to invite representatives of various parties up until the last minute, or even, for the more radical private broadcasters, representatives of the extreme right.” And Olivier Lemaire underlines the cruel mise en abyme of this deprogramming: “A year later, the film itself experiences what it filmed. What irony! »

The director is trying to console himself with the announcement of a new broadcast promised by France 5 in September. “Cynically, this deprogramming will perhaps draw attention to the film, which will perhaps benefit from it, which is a bit ironic…” In the meantime, you can watch the four-episode documentary series Slash on France.tv Life on Mars(e), which he co-signed with Tom Schembri and Raphaël Chatelain, around dancers from (La)Horde. Like an open window, in this cluttered sky, on a dancing planet where the wind of revolt blows.