Grandstand. We, moviegoers, spectators around the world, documentary filmmakers, are in mourning today! A great man has just died on Friday February 4th. A man through whom our passion for cinema, life, democracy, dialogue was built there, in a small village in Ardèche! He was a great man who built a city, Lussas, where, with his friend from the municipal school Jean-Marie Barbe, he never stopped allowing one of the capitals of documentary cinema to establish itself.
His name was Jean-Paul Roux, he had been the mayor of Lussas since 1987, he had protected and developed agriculture there and created one of the largest poles of documentary cinema in the world, with the States General of Documentary Film since 1989 .
These two friends fought side by side to make culture popular, to demonstrate that you can cultivate your land and your intelligence in the same movement, that documentary cinema is what young people consider to be theirs…
Agriculture and culture
Jean-Paul Roux, farmer, mayor and president of the community of communes has spent his life defending the general interest, favoring agriculture and culture.
In Lussas, each street bears the trace of his work.
That political majorities, that fashions can change, must not destroy the infrastructures built for citizens, whether they are farmers or moviegoers.
Today, we look at the immense work of these two men with the fear that it will waver… We must admire it and continue it.
Documentary filmmakers from all over the world have come to Lussas and Lussas has shone on all continents.
From this fertile couple, the peasant mayor and the man of culture, there remains Jean-Marie Barbe, tireless creator, dreamer and visionary from whom so many young people have received a vocation.
We must remind him of our support despite this mourning so that the Lussas miracle continues.