After snagging the Best Pitch award in the Global Issues section of this year’s Sunny Side of the Doc (24-27 June), Business Doc Europe spoke to Renaud Lavergne, Factstory producer of Inside Gaza, helmed by Hélène Lam Trong and the Agence France Press (AFP) Gaza team. Lavergne and his crew embarked on the project after the events of October 7.
“We felt that this war wouldn’t look like any other conflicts our team in Gaza had to cover. And it became more obvious as we understood there was no possibility at all for them [the team] to leave Gaza, and other AFP teams to enter the Strip. They would be on their own, basically without any help from the outside,” Lavergne tells BDE.
Lavergne is producing the project with Yann Olivier, former AFP journalist and correspondent. The AFP Gaza bureau includes videoreporters Yahya Hassouna and Belal Al Sabbagh, text reporters Adel Zanoun and Mai Yaghi, photographers Mahmoud Hams, Mohammed Abed and Said Khatib alongside administrator Mohanad Shahwan, cook and gardener Abu Ahmed and technician Ahmed Eissa.
“This film is a powerful document that reveals the inside story of a war the vast majority of international media have not been allowed to cover. Inside Gaza tells the story of journalists reporting under rocket fire and propaganda from all sides, witnessing human distress while trying to ensure their own survival as well as that of their relatives and friends,” reads the project’s official logline.
“Our story is embodied by the members of the Gaza office team. With experience of covering half a dozen wars, they had lived under the blockade of Gaza for 17 years. Funerals, deprivations and exit restrictions punctuated their daily lives. But since 7 October, their lives have been thrown into a new hell,” the official pitch deck further explains.
“Inside Gaza is an unprecedented insight into the daily lives of Gaza residents trapped in the fighting during the first bloody months of this horrendous page of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Implicitly, the film also reflects on the absolute necessity of field journalism amid growing attacks on media freedom. The war currently ravaging the Gaza Strip places AFP journalists in a complex situation because they themselves are trapped in an area where the rest of the international press is prohibited from accessing. They are themselves the target of attacks. And they themselves lost family, homes, and the lives they had before.”
In her director’s statement Lam Trong says that the documentary will be built on “four intertwining levels.” “The first framework will be that of the chronological events [unfolding from 7 October 2023 to 29 April 2024], which will be documented thanks to the precious, unprecedented material that constitutes the information collected and the images captured by AFP journalists in Gaza since October 7 2023. “
“These images will be put into perspective with the images recorded by the AFP office in Jerusalem on the Israeli side and by archives extracted from reports in Hebrew, Arabic, English and French. This journalistic and professional content will be enriched with intimate images often filmed on mobile phones in a “behind the scenes” or “logbook” style by Mai, Adel, Yahya and Mohammed.”
“We also asked Yahya’s brother, Youssef, an AFP freelancer, to film the team in their daily lives and at work in the field. Finally, Mai, Adel, Yahya and Mohammed will reflect on the events with hindsight, following their arrival in Egypt, Cyprus or Qatar. It is from this new beginning, from this leap into the unknown and its uncertain prospects, that they will make a return of sorts to the war they survived. This war which is unlike any of those they had covered before. And which holds greater consequences for them all.”
“I’ve already been able to view some of the images sent from Gaza by the local AFP office. I do not doubt for a moment the documentary and narrative force they contain. As far as possible, I would also like to use the photos of Mahmoud Hams and Mohammed Abed who offer a point of view that is often complementary to that of the video. They would be integrated in the form of freeze frames which could punctuate strong moments of the film. We will test this process in the development phase,” Lam Trong concludes.
Commenting on the choice of Lam Trong as director, producer Lavergne adds: “Hélène is a famous French director, having won last year the most prestigious French journalism award, the Albert Londres Prize, for her film Daesh, The Phantom Children. She’s known for her humanity, her kindness, taking time to talk to people and her prowess at building the narrative arc.” Lam Trong has been making documentaries for TV since 2014 after spending 9 years at Radio France serving as a reporter.
Zooming in on the current stage of the project, the producer reveals to BDE: “Before [the start of] Sunny Side, we’ve already signed a development [deal] with RTBF [Belgian broadcaster]. Arte also showed big interest, and we’re quite confident they’ll be on board. Budget is still in the works, and we hope Sunny Side will help us to build it. We’d like to release the film in summer 2025.”
“We were very honoured to be selected for the Global Issues pitch. As a relatively new production company launched in 2021, it was important [for us] to gain credibility. And we succeeded by winning this award! We’re looking for broadcasters, pre-sales and funds.”
