44 GENIUS INTERVIEW Martin Boudot
FEED: What kinds of differences?
Martin Boudot: Back then, what we would call “English investigation” – meaning the BBC, too, not just American networks – it is more factual. The investigations on French TV were more based on editorial stuff. There were fewer facts and more opinions. But that has changed a lot over the last ten years in France. We have made some effort to have more factual and neutral investigation in France, and less opinion. But in term of imagery, in France we were ahead. The American way of filming an investigation was more about doing a beautiful setup interview, and then doing a lot of B rolls. There wasn’t a lot of live footage. In France, we like to shoot sequences. It’s trying to demonstrate what’s really happening with a live sequence and not having just using an interview, with B roll to illustrate it. And that is how I first got spotted, because my way of filming was very different to what they were used to. In 2009, I got a call from a French company, Premieres Lignes. They wanted me to work as a freelancer for them doing only investigative stuff, which they specialise in. So I have been working with them on and off for the last ten years, and this is how I got into investigation on TV in France. FEED: You specialise in films on health and the environment. How do you approach developing those? Martin Boudot: I’ve done a few pieces about the environment, especially trying to mix science with the environment and trying to provide people with more facts. Again, that comes from my American experience of providing facts and relating them to the environmental situation. Not just having some activists saying, “This industry is polluting” and then the industry
saying, “It’s not our fault” – but trying to find a third way with some really strong facts to determine what the level of pollution is, and if it does exist, how it affects the environment and the people. So I’ve done some partnerships with scientists from Luxembourg, Indonesia, France, the UK, the US. And from Paraguay, too. I’ve realised that a lot of scientists are willing to work with reporters if we can finance some part of their scientific studies, because most of the time we do have some budgets. We always believe our projects are very light and low-budget, but when it comes to science, they’re actually quite big. Sometimes they just need €2000, €3000 or €4000 to finish or to enlarge a
scientific study that they require in order to get published. So that can actually be an interesting partnership. FEED: How do you make sure that those scientific ideas are delivered to audiences in an engaging way? Martin Boudot: I investigate environmental issues linked to our way of consuming, to how the world is going. So when I investigate the textile industry in Indonesia polluting a river, it has a direct relevance to us here because we buy those clothes. H&M, Gap, all the major brands, they work with these Indonesian suppliers. It was the same when I investigated the soy industry in Paraguay – the vast majority of the soy produced in Paraguay is produced for our livestock, our cattle. It is not for Paraguay’s animals or the Paraguayan people. The same thing with the gold in South Africa. The mines in South Africa, which are polluting, are for our jewels. The idea is to try to connect people with these problems, showing how pollution at the other side of the planet is linked to our own way of consuming or our way of doing things. It’s good to have knowledge about it and see how we could improve. Regarding science, it’s always hard to talk about it on current affairs shows or in documentaries, because most of the
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