“I had never worked with such a famous actress”, admits Marie-Monique Robin, director of around twenty documentaries. Accustomed to recounting the worst of the human being, from organ trafficking to torture, the journalist has premiered The Pandemic Factory with Juliette Binoche in Odyssey, which is part of AMC Selekt. Robin is delighted with her collaboration with the only actress who has won a Bafta, a César and an Oscar, as well as a Goya, although she also admits that she is more concerned than before: “I am the mother of three daughters and this generation is in danger.”
In a Spanish perfected over countless trips, the French documentalist (Gourgé, 1960) tells by videoconference that she has enough experience to be able to talk about the evolution of our planet. “Since the 1980s I have seen climate change, poverty, which is also impressive, and the destruction of biodiversity, which has accelerated all these phenomena. For my generation, climate change is obvious to the naked eye.”
The two episodes of The Pandemic Factory investigate the causes of the proliferation of infectious diseases in the short span of this millennium, such as SARS, Ebola, Lassa fever and Covid 19. Binoche’s collaboration was the idea of ??the actress. “She called me in 2020 and she told me that she liked my books and my movies, so she wanted me to be a member of the jury that she chaired, at an environmental film festival in the south of France.”
In this case, the question was where new infectious diseases come from
“He asked me what I was working on and he told me: I don’t understand anything in science and that’s why I would like to work with you. I replied: I have to record in eight countries and and you work a lot, it will not be possible. But he did it. It’s true that she doesn’t know about science and assumes it, but works as a bridge between scientists and the mass public”.
“For my part”, continues Marie-Monique Robin, “I wanted to film biodiversity to protect it, because what is known is respected. When we are in the Yucatán, for example, Juliette bursts into tears, because of the beauty of the place. I always say that to protect biodiversity you first have to know it and then love it. She gives the documentary that sensitivity and emotion.”
Robin -we could almost call her Robin of the woods- has a stable working method: talking to dozens of experts and then writing a book and filming a documentary. “I am an investigative journalist. I am interested in understanding and answering questions that people are asking. In this case, the question was where new infectious diseases come from, of which Covid 19 is just one example.”
Robin does not believe that fiction is better than documentary for reaching the general public. “The pandemic factory is a tremendous success worldwide and so is the book. I receive many emails thanking me for having understood the mechanisms. Scientists from different continents working with different subjects reach the same conclusions: the relationship between the destruction of biodiversity and the appearance of new infectious diseases”.
Proud of her work, but scared, Robin is amazed that we are already considering the sixth mass extinction on Earth: “It’s incredible, because the fifth was 60 million years ago. Politicians do not take the necessary measures. At least They have understood, more or less, that there is a problem with the climate, but they think that we can continue contaminating and that nothing will happen. I have discovered that we depend on biodiversity to live. Its destruction is also a cause of climate change and the appearance of new diseases. In the documentary you see the mechanisms and identifying the causes means that you can act”.
“I have traveled a lot and the changes are evident,” continues the reporter. “I have been to Mexico about 20 times, since the 1980s, and then there were not today’s pollution problems, nor so much obesity, which is relevant because with Covid it was an important mortality factor.”
Should we travel less now? “They have invited me to the premiere of the documentary and the presentation of the book in Portugal, New York, Mexico, Havana, Singapore, Bangkok… and I tell them no. I travel to film, because it is my job, but these Interviews can be done via Zoom.
Can everyone contribute? “Of course. Nothing is enough, but we need that global vision. If you eat a chicken in Spain or France that is not organic and local, that means it was fed with soybeans, which come from Latin America. Then you contribute to deforestation , climate change, the destruction of biodiversity and the appearance of new diseases. There is no doubt. Everyone can eat less meat or at least organic and local”.
One day we will rise and everything will be on the ground
Politicians are another thing: “It would be necessary for the European Union to do things, little by little, because everything is not done at once. But there is a direct relationship between our agricultural model and what happens in Latin America, because interconnection is a central word. What scientists have discovered is that everything is interconnected. By not taking this relationship into account, we are now in a very serious situation.”
At this point, Marie-Monique Robin alternates her fears and her hopes: “You also see what is happening with water in our countries. Desertification is certain in the south of France and Spain if we do not change the agricultural model. The The good news, in quotes, is that if we do it we will avoid very, very difficult situations for our children. It is possible if we act very quickly, but I don’t know if it will be possible, because there are very strong private interests.”
The conversation ends around the need to stop short-term thinking. “If we don’t do it, we won’t avoid a global collapse. One day we will get up and everything will be on the ground. I am the daughter of peasants and I know the subject well. The intensive production that takes place in some parts of Spain and France it is one of the causes of flooding and rising temperatures, which lead to the appearance of new diseases. In the book I talk about what is happening in Siberia with the permafrost. Scientists tell you that we don’t know what’s going on inside that ice, like possible viruses. The future is very dark if we don’t change course.”
According to the criteria of The Trust Project