France's quest to widen cultural accessibility through cinema

 

France and cinema

From the Lumiere brothers’ The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station in 1895, through the trailblazing Nouvelle Vague movement of the late 50s and 60s, to broad-ranging modern classics – take the unsparing social drama La Haine or the whimsical Amelie (2001) – France has certainly established itself as an internationally-recognised bastion of cinema.

The French state itself recognises the significance of cinema to France’s cultural identity. As a country that has actively encouraged a counter-movement to what is often seen as Hollywood’s profit-driven blockbuster machine, the French government began to subsidise filmmaking after World War II, in order to foster “the pursuit of film as pure art, not requiring enormous profits to be considered valuable”.

Fast-forward to May of this year, and the state’s involvement in the industry continues – this time, through a recognition of the need for a rejuvenation of France’s filmmaking infrastructure. The French Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak took the stage at Cannes to announce a 350 million euro investment to make France the ‘European leader’ of cinema. 

Abdul-Malak acknowledged that France’s current film-making infrastructure is “not sufficiently adapted” to the global industry’s mammoth shift towards studio-based production. This fund therefore aims to dramatically accelerate the growth of productions shot in France by attracting projects from abroad. 

Audiences and equality of access

Alongside this attempt to simultaneously adapt and preserve France’s status in the world of cinema, another shift is taking place. Here, though, the focus is on cinema audiences. Specifically, steps are being taken to broaden attendance and improve the accessibility of the multitude of cinema screenings, festivals and other film events that take place each year across France – a country in which the cultural arts are frequently labelled too elitist. 

The French government has widely publicised the steps it has taken to increase cultural accessibility for young people (with ‘culture’ in this context referring to the arts, heritage and creative economy, rather than the broader sense of social behaviour, traditions, customs and beliefs). In 2021, for example, president Emmanuel Macron introduced the ‘Pass Culture’, whereby teenagers receive €300 on their 18th birthday to be used on cinema and theatre tickets, museum entry, books, art supplies, or musical instruments.

‘L’Art pour grandir’ programme. Source: Ville de Paris

Paris city council, meanwhile, has launched the cultural and educational programme ‘L’Art pour grandir’, which aims to introduce children to cultural establishments and events from an early age. Cinema forms a large part of this programme, through the ‘Mon premier cinema’ scheme, aimed at pre-school children, which involves a guided tour of a cinema, exploring the projection rooms, a film screening, and film workshops. 120 pre-schools currently participate in this programme, which the Ville de Paris hopes to further expand. Similar schemes are in place for high-school students (‘Collège au cinéma’, currently attended by over 12,000 pupils) and for families during the school holidays (‘Mon premier Festival’, which has welcomed over 34,000 children so far).

The importance of non-state action

In terms of the adult public, though, the real developments in accessibility are being propelled by smaller, independent creative organisations.  In Paris alone, this summer a vast array of cinema screenings have been cropping up across the capital’s maze of squares, parks and gardens. From a documentary festival on an abandoned railroad to tiny roof-top screenings, it will come as a surprise to many visitors from abroad that these events have – for the vast majority – been free to the public. 

The organisers of the film festival Cinescale, which took place over two August evenings in the quaint Square Marcel Bleustein Blanchet – nestled underneath the striking towers and domes of the illuminated Sacre-Coeur – explain that the decision to make the festival free was an obvious one. Quite simply, they want to make their events “accessible to the maximum number of people”. The festival’s location at the “highest altitude point in Paris, where thousands of people from all corners of the world mix each day” was equally important to the festival planners. Indeed, this location brings an element of symbolism: the meandering streets and squares of Montmartre, and the diversity of its patrons, presents a complete counterpoint to the elitism and glamour of France’s shiny face of cinema, le Festival de Cannes.

Investing in the space

For the coordinators of another festival in Paris, Ciné-Voisins, location-choice had even greater socio-political significance. They strive to host events in areas where “many people don’t necessarily have the financial means to afford a cinema ticket”. This year, a series of venues in the 20th and 12th arrondissements were used; each was chosen in conjunction with advisors such as the Mairie de Paris, social landlords and local organisations. The districts chosen are formally classified as ‘Quartier Prioritaire de la Ville’ (QPV) – areas of high concentrations of poverty with often very few cultural opportunities available. 

Indeed, France’s capital is a city where the divide between the richest and poorest Parisians is a troublingly persistent issue. In the city’s QPVs – many of which are often dubbed as ‘les banlieues’ – approximately 57% of children are below the poverty-line, as opposed to 21% in the rest of the country. The think tank Institut Montaigne states that the likelihood of unemployment in these areas is three times higher than the rest of France. 

The crowd watch one of Ciné-Voisins' film screenings in a Parisian garden. Source: Ciné-Voisins

La Fabrique Documentaire, the company that organises the Ciné-Voisins festival, hopes to “enhance the value of the area in question through a cinematographic event that invites people to invest in the common good that is public space”. Just as the Cinescale festival actively engages in the site of Montmartre as a cultural and economic melting-pot, the organisers of Ciné-Voisins hope that their choice of location will have a unifying effect. Primarily, the festival aims to open up accessibility to culture for the inhabitants of these lower-socio-economic areas. Beyond this, though, there is the additional endeavour to attract those who live further away – and may already be regular attendees of Paris’ more economically exclusive cultural events – so that they can “discover spaces that have previously been unknown to them”. There is an awareness here that cultural events in disadvantaged areas should not be isolated from the rest of the cultural landscape. Instead, they can be used to erase boundaries and prompt social cohesion. 

So whilst the festival’s screens, seats and ticket desks are themselves only temporary, there is a vision for a much longer-lasting transformation within the locality. Now in its sixth edition, Ciné-Voisins demonstrates a commitment to making access to culture sustainable: not simply hosting a one-off screening or event, but investing in the space, to transform its reputation and lead to durable change.

These events in Paris recognise the potential for cinema to be a gateway into culture for those who have traditionally been pushed to the sidelines or excluded. With this attitude, one small film festival becomes a stepping stone to wider cultural engagement and inclusion.

by Rosa Haworth