45 GENIUS INTERVIEW Martin Boudot
THE SCIENCE SIDE Martin Boudot works closely with scientists to ensure that his films have a
firm foundation in facts and the latest research
FEED: The film created a political uproar in Paraguay. What was it like on the shoot? Martin Boudot: To be honest with you, everything went very smoothly and we were very lucky. Sometimes that does happen. And we were not expecting it to have as much impact as what actually happened. We were not expecting people to organise these protests. We spent four weeks there, and it was almost like we spent a year. I expected our results could help the people or show them that there were actually some consequences for them, that it could maybe raise awareness, but it really triggered a national debate in Paraguay. And for that, I’m very grateful. But you cannot plan this. It’s random. In this case it did work. It did happen. We are very lucky, too, and very humbled that our work was indeed useful for people.
time it’s neutral, not black and white, it’s numbers. We always try to humanise the science through doctors or through a scientific team engaged in defending their community or country. And that is another way of showing the impact on the people. FEED: How did the Paraguay: Poisoned Fields film come about? Martin Boudot: It took almost a year, between the moment I first made contact with the scientific team on the ground in Paraguay and the minute I finished editing. I had been reading scientific papers regarding the genetic damage caused by pesticides and found an unusual study that had been made in Paraguay by Dr. Stela Benitez. I got in contact with her because I could see they didn’t have the financial means to do all the research they wanted. The Paraguay story checked a lot of boxes from a journalistic point of view.
Paraguay has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. At the same time, it produces soy that we use in Europe for our cattle. It also uses a lot of pesticides that are forbidden in Europe, but we still sell. There were a lot of different angles that were interesting. Paraguay doesn’t produce pesticides. They buy pesticides from firms like Syngenta, a Swiss-based company owned by China, or the German company Bayer, which also owns Monsanto. And not to mention DuPont or Dow Chemical in the US. These large firms sell their pesticides to whoever is willing to have them. When a market like Europe says they are too dangerous, then most of the time they go and sell it to other countries. And Paraguay is an example of that. This is why we decided to investigate, and try to produce this scientific study about the genetic damages of children living next to the soy crops.
FEED: Are you allowed to go back into Paraguay?
ME AND MY CARAVANWERE FOLLOWED BY THE SECRET SERVICES BECAUSE WEWERE INVESTIGATING A LAKE THAT HAD BEEN COMPLETELY POLLUTED
Martin Boudot: I think I would be allowed because we also shared our data and shared our work with governments and with the officials. That is also my English-trained point of view about investigation. You should not treat your activist sources better than the industry
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