Alice Lemaire ⢠Producer, Michigan Films
âScriptwritersâ imagination can hardly beat current lifeâ
Belgian producer
Alice Lemaire, of Michigan Films, selected for the 2021 Emerging Producers programme, discussed documentary production in the current situation.
Why do you produce documentaries? Do you understand documentary film as an instrument of social and political change?
Alice Lemaire: As a former history student, Iâve always felt bonded to our reality that I think is so complex and full of layers that scriptwritersâ imagination can hardly beat current life. I have also always found documentary film to be the most fertile playground for filmmakersâ experimentation and research in the language of cinema â especially in Belgium which is a great âland of freedomâ for documentary filmmaking. I think that films are very rarely effective instruments of change, but I believe that the choices we make in terms of writing, making films and even producing them are political choices. The great power of documentary filmmaking is to give a singular view of a fragmented and complex world, to provide clues and different perspectives that can help us think and give meanings to life by offering us time and unexpected encounters.