Alive, the film that exposes the difficulties of the free press and investigative journalism

Alix Delaporte

Vivants, fiction by director Alix Delaporte, released in theaters on February 14, traces the life of a contemporary editorial team of journalists specializing in field reports, working for a television channel. A film focused on the difficulties of freely exercising the profession of informing.  

This feature film highlights some of the obstacles that every journalist must face in the face of a lack of independence, whether financial or political, and whose systematic expectation of profitability often biases information work.  

The director, born in Chatou, in the Paris region, knows what she is talking about when she co-wrote Vivants. Alix Delaporte, a former journalist-cameraman who worked for the CAPA agency and Nulle Part Ailleurs on Canal +, knows the industry.  

It is the evolution of both journalistic and audiovisual editorial teams over the last twenty years that is reflected here: pressure from superiors in the face of audience ratings, difficulties in obtaining sufficient material resources (even for an experienced editorial team), the “Big Boss”’s disinterest in certain overly relevant social issues, journalists’ lack of independence in asking overly “touchy” questions to certain guests, etc. 

But it gets juicy when the director tackles one of the most taboo social subjects in the media in France: the affairs of large stores (supermarkets, hypermarkets) illegally established, with the complicity of local or non-local elected officials and magistrates. Throughout the film, like a common thread, this affair appears, where we see the difficulty for a journalist to show the links between elected officials, and here, the Chinese mafia, “arranging” to allow the installation of a large store.  

Here we discover Alice Isaaz in the role of a young intern, who joins a group of journalists who have been close-knit since their beginnings, fifteen years earlier.  

Proud of past reports, we quickly understand that the lack of allocated resources and the pressure of the audience ratings, encourages the hierarchy to move towards other subjects, pushing the editor-in-chief, constantly under tension, to justify his team's deviations from political correctness.  

A film that addresses without taboo, but sometimes a little too briefly, a number of social and political subjects, through the thoughts out loud of a team, of which we understand that the restrained journalists cannot discuss the latter in the editorial office.  

Mainly carried by Roschdy Zem (Indigènes, Roubaix, une lumière), Ludivine Sagnier (Swimming pool, L’ennemi public n°1) or Vincent Elbaz (Le Péril jeune), the director was able to rely on an experienced team to find accuracy in the interpretation. The film is not intended to glorify journalists, but where we understand the importance of finding a form of independence to publish correct work.  

Vivants, by Alix Delaporte, finds its place in a world where artists rarely discuss modern social and political issues. It also proves the importance of the voice of artists to highlight what is experienced by those who try, even a little, to describe our society, or even… to inform.   

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