- This Tuesday evening, France 2 presents “Homos en France”, an unpublished documentary directed by Aurélia Perreau and narrated by Vincent Dedienne.
- In this instructive and very moving film, various speakers tell what it is like to be gay or lesbian in France in 2023, whether they are high school students, retirees, well-known singers or news presenter.
- “It’s very easy to chain clichés and big clichés when we talk about homosexuality, and avoiding them is much more complicated. On the contrary, it’s a sensitive and touching film,” said 20 minutes Jean-Baptiste Marteau, who testifies in this documentary.
“Ten years after the vote for marriage for all, is it easier to be homosexual (the) in France? This is the question that France Télévisions is asking itself on the eve of the World Day Against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia. This Tuesday evening, France 2 airs at 9:10 p.m. Gays in France, a documentary directed by Aurélia Perreau and narrated by actor Vincent Dedienne. This special evening will then continue with a debate presented by Julian Bugier.
How do you build yourself in childhood and adolescence when you feel “different”, when you lack role models and when your own family often denies who you are? How to deal with rejection harassment, aggression, whether you are a high school student or a retiree? Combining testimonies and archive images, this film addresses all stages of life, happiness and drama, as well as the victories and defeats in the fight against homophobia. Because despite notable societal advances, like the marriage for all in 2013the reality is chilling: young people LGBT are up to seven times more at risk of suicide than young heterosexuals (according to several studies compiled by Public Health France reported by francetvinfo). As for homophobic insults and physical violence, they have been constantly increasing for 10 years.
As instructive as it is moving, this choral film gives the floor to a very wide panel of speakers: well-known personalities such as the singers Angèle and Catherine Lara, the former French ambassador to the United States Gérard Araud or the journalist Jean- Baptist Hammer. There are also other life journeys, those of people aged 16 to 70, who all come face to face with the camera and courageously testify to what it is to be gay, lesbian, bi or pansexual in 2023.
“Giving voice to people we hear less”
This documentary, Aurélia Perreau feeds it since her previous project, the film “Blacks in France” co-written with Alain Mabanckou in 2022. It then appeared to him that many parallels existed between the victims of racism and those of homophobia. “I heard similar stories that were repeated all the time, from childhood to adulthood, explains the director to 20 minutes. Just as you don’t choose your skin color, you don’t choose your sexual orientation. The idea then was to tackle clichés and stereotypes, but also to “take stock”. “Until 1982, homosexuality was considered a crime. And until 1992, as a psychiatric illness. It was barely 30 years ago. Where are we today? Concretely, what has changed in the daily lives of gays and lesbians in France? she wonders.
To understand it, it was therefore necessary to give the floor to those concerned, if possible very different people. “We wanted people of all ages and from all walks of life, from all over France and not just from Paris. We wanted to give voice to people we hear less, ”she says. In the film, a high school student near Valenciennes, a salesman in the Parisian suburbs, a landscaper in Poitou or even a retiree in the south of France are revealed.
This diversity of points of view is in particular what pleased the presenter Jean-Baptiste Marteau, a face known to viewers of France 2, who also gives himself up with an open heart. “To make a good film, in particular to allow people who don’t have gay people around them to remove the clichés they may have in their heads and see reality as it is, you need testimonials. It has to go through the human to precisely break the fears, fantasies and phobias that there could be. » A reassuring approach, especially since on the subject, such a film could have been « a bit of a headache » specifies the journalist. “It’s very easy to chain clichés and big clichés when we talk about homosexuality and to avoid them is much more complicated. On the contrary, it is a sensitive and touching film”, he believes.
“No, you are not alone”
Among these stories, there is in particular that of Arwen, a 16-year-old high school student who confides with modesty what the daily life of a young lesbian is like, between harassment, sexism and school phobia. Or even the career of Mfaomé, who navigates between his job as a salesman and his passion for the ballrooms, while hiding his homosexuality from those close to him. “At least when you’re black, you don’t have to tell your mother,” he said bitterly. Finally, there is also Bernard, in his 70s, forced as a teenager by his parents to undergo “conversion therapy”. This poignant testimony reminds us that we had to wait until 2022 to ban these inhuman practices.
Jean-Baptiste Marteau also looks back on difficult times in his life. “The recording lasted three hours and I came out exhausted. Many of us have gone through the same thing, adolescence is really not a happy time. It’s insults at school, the feeling of being absolutely alone, having billions of questions in your head and no one to talk to about it, ”he explains. Why agree to talk about it now? “Today I am happy in my personal life and happy in my professional life. I do it a bit out of duty vis-à-vis those who ask themselves questions and feel alone in what they are going through. I want to tell them “no, you are not alone”. I would have dreamed at that time of having faces, incarnations of people who look like me and who just say to me ‘you’ll see, it’s going to do it, it’s not going to be that complicated’”, says -he.
“We have to explain what the reality is”
And that is indeed one of the objectives of this documentary, to highlight multiple trajectories and move the lines. It is also one of the missions of the public service. “When we see to what extent TV has participated in conveying clichés, making a program against the grain and seeing young people talking about it, I think it will have an impact. The idea is not to point out homophobia, which is notably due to ignorance, we have to explain what the reality is, ”assures director Aurélia Perreau.
“Yes, there is the risk of saying that we are only going to convince the convinced, adds Jean-Baptiste Marteau. But I don’t think, not when you broadcast a program in prime time on France 2 at prime time, you’re going to have people from all walks of life going to see it, with their family, with friends. They will talk about it the next day at work. And it is something that then irradiates the whole of society. We can’t convince everyone, there will still be plenty of homophobes afterwards, I’m under no illusions at all, I’m not completely naive. But I know that we will manage to change the way some people look and help some others. »