France pushes for on-screen diversity
On the grounds that a multicultural vision is still uncommon in movies and on television the French government has decided to promote diversity through a subsidy fund. Called Images de la Diversité, or Images of Diversity, the fund went into effect last year and distributed about €5 million (US$6.8 million) in aid in 2007. With France’s government playing a big role in film financing in general, movies that qualify generally get extra state financing in addition. The fund’s creation came as a response to the nationwide riots that shook poor minority neighbourhoods in 2005, when youths set cars afire and clashed with riot police in a chaotic outpouring of frustration fuelled partly by discrimination and unemployment. French power circles realized that a lack of minority role models in government and mass media, was among the problems fuelling a sense of disconnection among youths from France’s large black and Arab communities. Though France has long sponsored funding to promote diversity in film, creating Images of Diversity allowed it to streamline and improve the system. “The fund’s goal is to promote feature films, documentaries and television projects that showcase and promote a positive image of French diversity,” said Blanche Guillemot, associate director of the National Agency for Social Cohesion and Equal Opportunity, which runs the fund along with the National Cinema Centre. “We’re not going to help a movie just because it stars a black or North African actor,” she said. “We’re looking for quality subjects. There’s no quota system.”
