Inside Cannes Docs with Pierre-Alexis Chevit

The global doc community gathers on the Riviera

Cannes Docs begins tomorrow, bringing together industry members from across the globe for an inspiring slate of presentations, opportunities and activities, culminating in Doc Day on Tuesday, May 20. I spoke to Head of Cannes Docs, Pierre-Alexis Chevit about what participants can expect this year, why Cannes Docs is so impactful for the international documentary community and recent successes that demonstrate the programme’s power.

“What I’m most proud of is the mere fact that Cannes Docs exists, that it has been able to expand to the fullest in a rather doc-averse environment, and to see how much people actually enjoy the program and its whole philosophy of togetherness, passion for docs, and deep faith in kindness, ethics and cooperation.”

– Pierre-Alexis Chevit

Bella: How did you get involved with Cannes Docs and how has it evolved?

Pierre-Alexis: Back in 2015, I was already working for Cannes, at the Short Film Corner program (a great one too!). When my great friend Madeline Robert – who had been coordinating the first two editions of what was then called Doc Corner – moved on to work at Visions du Réel, I jumped on the opportunity to take over, out of my love for docs, of course! What was so enormously exciting back then is that there was so much to be imagined and put in place to develop this program and give it the dimension that the documentary professionals and the genre itself truly deserve in the Cannes context.

Ten years later, it has bloomed beautifully, in scope and in relevancy, to become one of the significant meeting points on the global documentary industry circuit. All of this thanks to the most extraordinary team ever, Babette Dieu, Raphaëlle Cittanova, Cassandra Bazin, Axelle Jean – and to key programming allies Brigid O’Shea and Marion Schmidt from DAE (Documentary Association of Europe.)

Amongst our decisive supporting partners, along the years, I would also mention the Ford Foundation and Cara Mertes who at the time was head of the JustFilms program, as well as IEFTA and Al Jazeera Documentary, and our precious allies on the ground in Cannes, LaScam, with the L'Œil D'Or Award, and ACID, for their unwavering commitment to docs.

Cannes Docs is essentially, profoundly, entirely the result of a collective effort, and wouldn’t be what it has become without these talented, dedicated human beings and like-minded organizations.