They were four women on stage this Thursday, February 6 at the Festival of television creations, in Luchon (Haute-Garonne), to talk about the place of actresses and directors on television, still too dominated by that of men.
Laurence Bachman, producer and president of the association For women in the media, Julie Gayet, actress and producer, Claire de La Rochefoucauld, director, and Agnès Chauveau, director responsible for dissemination and innovation at INA (National Audiovisual Institute) first relied on a few figures: 12% of female directors on television only in 2014 according to the CNC (National Center for Cinema and Animated Image), and 14% today . Progress to be made when you know that in the cinema, there are 27% of female directors, which is already too little.
To remedy this situation, all of them propose the introduction of quotas in French productions, not 50% from the start but starting with 25%, then 30%. "No, it would not harm creativity," they say in turn, already anticipating the usual thoughts. “We have been trying for ten years to make things happen without quotas and nothing is happening, regrets Claire de La Rochefoucault. So, at some point, you have to go through it. "
"For women to count, you have to count them"
For the practical modalities, it will be necessary to wait, working groups currently working on the subject. The INA is also carrying out a major study on the place of women in French fiction over the past ten years. "For women to count, you have to count them," stresses Julie Gayet, who devoted a documentary presented to Luchon on the place of women in cinema.
And Claire de La Rochefoucauld underlines that the lines have to be moved from the writing and the casting: "When I look at a casting list, in the characters, I always have 70% male roles and 30% of women. There is still a long way to go, but in groups such as "50/50", launched in early 2018, or the association "For women in the media", the will is there.
