In November 2023, in a report devoted to documentary filmmaking, the Inspection Générale des Affaires Culturelles (IGAC — General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs) confirmed what most professionals in the field had been observing empirically: a growing precariousness within the sector and among documentary filmmakers.

Following this report, the Acid, Addoc and SRF published a joint statement in which they called on the social partners “to arrange […] the possibility for documentary film productions to derogate from the annexes under certain conditions, as already exists for fiction films.”

Les Monteurs Associés (LMA — the Editors’ Association) responded with a position statement arguing that derogations to labour agreements are not the appropriate response to the documentary crisis. While they acknowledged the value of this approach, they stressed that “fighting precariousness with more precariousness” was not the answer.

The UCO shares this view. While supporting directors in their legitimate fight for better pay and production conditions, and sharing their desire to defend the most fragile films, LMA and the UCO expressed their opposition to such a project, which would further weaken crews already strained by ever-shrinking budgets.

This does not, however, seem to have diminished the determination of the project’s proponents to bring it before the social partners during the renegotiation of Annex III of the national collective agreement for film production.

To avoid any misunderstanding, the signatory associations primarily concerned (cinematography, sound, editing) wish to point out that the discussions held with some of them should not be taken as approval, and collectively reaffirm their opposition to any derogation from existing labour agreements that would result in a deterioration of the working conditions of film crews working on documentary productions.

Signatory associations: AFSI, LSA, LMA, UCO