The context
Magicinéma has been working for twenty-eight years to present arthouse or heritage films at the Buisson-de-Cadouin cinema. However, relations with Didier Honno, the new director arriving in 2024, have quickly deteriorated. “He wants to control everything.” proclaim the members of Magicinéma.
For his part, Didier Honno, who has the support of the municipality, explains that he has set up a programming committee. It includes, among others, the Magicinéma and L’Å’il lucide associations, the latter of which specializes in creative documentary films. “The film was excluded from our programming in consultation with L’Å’il lucide, because its director preferred to present it elsewhere and differently,” explains the director. In this case, in Bergerac, maintaining the collaboration with Magicinéma (read box).
In summary, on the one hand, Magicinéma wants to keep “carte blanche” and considers the programming committee as a “pretext” for the director to keep control; on the other, Didier Honno wants to be the guarantor of programming developed in consultation with all the actors and defends himself from any desire for censorship.
The conflict escalated in March. To find a way out, an agreement was proposed between the cinema and the association, without success.
No censorship
In view of the testimonies and elements collected by “Sud Ouest”, neither the municipality nor the cinema management sought to censor a film on homosexuality. Moreover, the testimony of the director of the other association, L’Å’il lucide, is unambiguous.
“The lucid eye does not want to be associated with this story, which for me is only the story of the quarrels of Magicinéma,” says Jenny Saastamoinen. L’il lucid has been presenting, for years, a good number of LGBTQIA+ films, including at the Buisson-de-Cadouin cinema, with whom I work on good terms and very regularly. »
Still, the future of Magicinéma at the Lux-Louis-Delluc cinema seems very compromised. For its president, Alain Bressy, it is a “difficult death to swallow”. The director of the cinema and the municipality “do not wish to close the door” but “regret” the turn of events.
