French filmmaker lets protesters and police have a say in a documentary about police brutality

With all his videos of alleged police brutality, he hasn’t made friends everywhere. “Some call me the No. 1 anti-cops journalist,” he says indignant. A police union is said to have even demanded that the subsidy for his film be withdrawn. But, he says, “with this movie I get out of the bubble of like-minded people. There are even agents who come to the movie, they want to talk about it.”

Due to the corona measures, the film can only be seen online in the Netherlands, and not in the cinemas. That will grieve the director, because he is right on the big screen so important. Everyone has seen images of the clashes between the police and protesters on TV or social media, he thinks. “But you can’t turn your head on a cinema screen. I don’t think you have seen them like that yet. In their full length. The big screen changes everything.”

Monopoly on violence

According to Dufresne, the authorities did not want to cooperate with his film. “I think that’s a shame for the film, but also for all of us. I think the police concern everyone.”

A majority of the French are positive about the police, he acknowledges. Dufresne takes a statement by the German sociologist Maz Weber as a point of contention. He once said that the state has a monopoly on the use of legitimate force. And that is still the general view. “But is that right?” Asks Dufresne. The film is more about freedom than about the police, he says. “How far do we want to trample our freedom? That question applies to all of us.”

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