INTERVIEW
Francois Hollande, president of the republic at the time, had gone to Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) to visit Theo, the hospital because of an unspeakable police aggression. The case had a strong resonance and highlighted the police violence and the critical situation of some French suburbs. Starting from this constant, the director Antoine Ly went to the city of 3,000, in Aulnay, to shoot a documentary. How to talk about the suburbs? How to make the suburbs talk? This is the challenge faced by the director, whose documentary is broadcast Monday night on RMC Story. He answered Europe's questions 1 Monday in Culture - Media.
"Very complicated to shoot in a suburb, to release the camera"
Antoine Ly is a journalist and documentary filmmaker. He wanted to go beyond the media business and show the daily life of a city: "It's very complicated to shoot in a suburb, so before we took out the camera, we spent a month there. my shopping at the market, I went to eat at the 'restaurant of 3,000' every day, I went to get my haircut twice! Seeing them every day in their neighborhood made people realize that I 'had a special approach'.
Antoine Ly and his team have won the trust of people, little by little. However, there is no question of infiltrating or turning into a hidden camera. The reporter was saying, "I was telling them, 'I want to make a documentary about you because you have important things to say I think, do you want to talk to me about it?' It was not obvious, he it took complicated and sometimes very long negotiations ".
The city of 3,000 today has 24,000 inhabitants, or half of the population on 4% of the territory. In the documentary of Antoine Ly, a first witness, Hakim Djaziri, comedian, analyzes the history of the neighborhood, his sociology: "There was more pure French in my time.There was still a certain mix that does not There is a lot of different nationalities living side by side, but there is no pure French, I regret it because would not be badly welcomed, on the contrary. "
The city of 3.000, former "Neuilly d'Aulnay"
If a politician spoke of "French pure stock", he would immediately be classified on the extreme right and qualified as racist. The strength of the documentary is to be iconoclastic, unspeakable things in the media are pronounced, like the term "pure strain".
All the problems that the media make their own - communitarianism, wearing the veil, delinquency, drug trafficking ... - are tackled head-on, without makeup "with those we always talk about but that we never hear, inhabitants of these cities ", explains Antoine Ly.
When the city of "Wind Rose" was built, there were 3,000 dwellings, hence the nickname "3000 city". It was very beautiful, very bright, it was even considered "Neuilly d'Aulnay". However, today, the situation has deteriorated significantly and it is not easy to show that this territory is a territory like the others and that it is unfairly stigmatized.
For example, the viewer attends a surrealist interview with a fifth-grad youth who is excluded from college: "This is the first time you've been out of school or not?" No. When was the first time? In the fifth, when the sixth come back to college, they are hit, and I hit the sixth and there was one who threw me in. And after that, I was excluded for a week. hit? Because he was coming back to sixth. "
"To survive in the city, I am happy"
Another scene, both authentic and exciting, the debate between two men in a café in the city where there are ... only men. One explains why he would like women to come while the other says his wife would not walk in the door for personal reasons. Then Antoine Ly just gives the floor to women to understand why they do not go in this cafe. "We alone are not going to dare because there are only men, it is not forbidden but it is a sign of modesty actually, it's weird ...", they say.
In the documentary, only one girl speaks at length, a dancer. When she is questioned about the place of women at 3.000, she begins by explaining that she hates this question before using a neologism: "To survive in the city, I am good-humored".
The journalist also meets the last physiotherapist of the city. He is retiring and he can not find anyone to succeed him. "What you have to understand is that when you grow up in these neighborhoods, you are not offered the opportunity to project yourself, to dream." There is only one possible dream to the city of 3,000 is footballers Moussa Sissoko comes from the city of 3,000, everyone dreams of being the next ".
See you Monday evening on RMC Story to see Aulnay-sous-Bois: immersion in the heart of the city .