Geneva’s FIFDH hosted the launch of the #JeSuisNoires global campaign on 14 March. The event, moderated by Patricia Finneran (Impact Fund Officer at the StoryBoard collective), saw the participation of co-director and protagonist of #JeSuisNoires Rachel M’Bon; First Hand Films’ Head of Swiss Distribution Nicole Biermaier; Swiss Films documentary and marketing strategies consultant Charlotte Ducos, and OHCHR’s Human Rights Officer for the Anti-Racial Discrimination Section Kellie Shandra Ognimba.
The mic was first handed to M’Bon who spoke about the #JeSuisNoires campaign and her doc Becoming A Black Woman: “When I decided to make this movie it was because I felt very concerned about the under-representation of Black women in media and the systemic racism in this country.”
Before showing the trailer, the journalist-turned-filmmaker explained how her film was the first to address structural racism in Switzerland and aim to give Black women a voice about the reality they live in. The movie premiered at FIFDH in 2022.
M’Bon defined the audience’s positive response as “unexpected” as there is much reluctance among Swiss people and media to admit to discrimination within their country. The movie gained “huge media coverage” and the first two screenings were sold out.
“It was very interesting to see we had some kind of momentum […] with people ready to put the topic on the table. […] The film became a tool to help them talk about that [topic] and share their stories, their vulnerability. We arrived at the right time with the right movie.”
Becoming A Black Woman was originally made as a 52-minute TV movie, said First Hand Films’ Biermaier. An FIFDH staffer contacted her, thinking about her firm as a potential distributor. Even though it wasn’t ready for theatrical distribution, the importance of the topic pushed Biermaier and M’Bon to work on a 68-minute version in the hope of accessing funding.
After the premiere in Geneva, the movie was screened in Lugano on 17 January, and then in Zurich on 9 March. It also gained a nomination for the Swiss Film Award for Best Short.
The doc was later screened in hospitals, schools and universities “living another life” M’Bon would have never expected.
“There’s more authenticity than strategy in this movie. It speaks to people not in an aggressive way, but in a peaceful one, [in order] to show them reality. People accept more this [approach] than an aggressive one. It talks the Swiss way. And Swiss valued this kind of subtlety,” M’Bon added.
OHCHR’s Ognimba later stated that it has been her first time working on a film addressing these specific issues and touched upon the close collaboration with M’Bon which included, among other things, the filmmaker’s participation within the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent where she could talk about the problem of representation of Black people in TV and film.
Ducos talked about how Swiss Films’ is trying to help M’Bon and her campaign: “We’re observing the industry in all its activities [and we understood that] what is important is to adapt to the trends we observe. Last year, we set up a lab to try out new initiatives. We opened a call for Impact producing and supported three productions. One of them was #Je Suis Noires. The idea was to help Swiss productions that don’t have a commercial distribution outside of Switzerland and to support them because they’re [trying to] reach out to audiences who are not going to cinemas.”
“For us it’s important to get more insights […] and get to know the landscape of Impact producing in Europe – in particular, in French-speaking countries, German-speaking countries, in Italy,” Ducos added. “The open question remains how to get the knowledge back to Swiss producers and directors. […] They often look for an expert on Impact producing outside [of the country].”
Next, M’Bon highlighted how her film evolved into “a tool to raise awareness in different contexts and situations.” For example, she spoke about her experience of presenting her work at the multinational firm Johnson & Johnson. The goal was to raise awareness among employees as this theme fits perfectly with diversity and the inclusion labs that many firms have. “It’s very important to ‘infiltrate’ these parts of society to raise awareness,” she added.
Speaking about the challenges of prepping the campaign, M’Bon said it wasn’t easy initially to manage everything alone and to prioritise tasks while carrying out a lot of time-consuming work without getting paid. “You’re still vulnerable, in a position of inferiority. We need to change this,” she said, adding that people need to understand that Impact producers and filmmakers work for important causes, and this time still needs to be paid.
Biermaier agreed, and added that many companies, for example, don’t understand that a fee should be paid for a speaker’s presence and time, often assuming they would gladly show up just for visibility.
In the last part of the talk, M’Bon revealed that the next steps of her campaign are to raise more funds and to find additional partners to back the efforts of her association, which is also acting as a social observatory to fight against “the lack of data that creates denial and hypocrisies.”
