under the door. When we know the success of our previous film (160,000 spectators in one month), we really feel held hostage with these stories of the past».
The filmmaker, journalist and root causes activist is furious. Last Thursday, spectators came from all over Corsica, from Porto-Vecchio, Corte and Ajaccio to attend the screening of the film “Liberty” at the Studio cinema in Bastia. A documentary which deals with the health situation in France. And yet at the time of the broadcast the room was half empty. So what happened in this cult place of island culture?
Exactly the same as in all regions of France: people who did not have a health pass were refused.
A stone’s throw from the cinema, Magà and Ariakina Ettori was filming a happening with around forty activists. They too had planned to join the 6:30 p.m. screening for the screening of Liberté. The production hoped that the room would be full, especially as a report from France 3 Corse gave an account of the event and that the entire island press had played the information game.
Régis Lafranchi co-organized the event in Ajaccio the day before and had traveled to Bastia to see the film. for his part stated that “this story of the pass is a shame and I am surprised that the Corsicans accept these rules of the game. I would be even more surprised if they agree to have their children bitten when they do not risk anything from the Covid.».
Magà Ettori is more tolerant of him: “The cinemas have our support. The Cinema Studios took risks in programming us and I understand their caution in a context of strengthening of sanitary pass controls. Especially when you see what happened in Chateaubriant
.’’ In less than ten days, in Loire-Atlantique, at the Emeraude cinema, the public and the cinema staff have undergone two interventions by the Chateaubriant gendarmerie brigade. The heavily armed gendarmes forced the screenings to stop and the lights to be turned back on in the middle of the session to control the health passes. And this despite the presence of a young audience.
Surprising methods, especially when we know that after months of closure and restrictive sanitary measures, dark rooms have declined by a quarter (23%) since 2019. As of August 30, Richard Patry, president of the Federation National cinema of France already deplored that the implementation of the sanitary pass had cost nearly 7 million tickets to the cinema, or nearly 50 million euros in turnover for the entire sector which had gone up in smoke ».
For the rest, he does not yet know how he will manage without a distributor, but what is certain “is that he will not let go “. He calls for the support of the film for the moment Children of Liberty which has already obtained 52% of the necessary sums (https://www.helloasso.com/associations/insave/collectes/les-enfants-de-la-liberte-le-film), but it also plans to engage in public action aimed at opposing the health pass: ” I was asked by a political movement for an ambitious approach, and I have until Tuesday, January 4 to give them an answer. It is in Montpelier that an announcement could be made concerning my new engagement. So we will think.».
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