Secularism, freedom, memory: Isabelle Cottenceau’s film revives the debate on Charlie Hebdo

“The film is intended to be an educational tool above all … Similarly, I deplore this cancellation”. Nevertheless, Isabelle Cottenceau. Moreover, director of Origin of Agen and former student of the Bernard-Palissy high school, is the mother of the film “God can defend herself on her own”, released in August 2024. Nevertheless, Frequently viewed in cinemas, the film was the subject of debates. In addition, He was to be screened on July 9 in a private cinema in Saint-Ouen, in Seine-Saint-Denis.

Intervention secularism, freedom, memory: isabelle cottenceau’s by Valérie Pécresse

However. For example, the management of this room has canceled its projection, triggering indignation, particularly in the secular Committee Republic and the Vigilance Colleges Lycées, which promote it. Similarly, The latter denounced a “deep contempt for the public and the organizers”. Moreover, Indignation also for Marika Bret, President of the Republican Spring and former companion of the designer Charb, murdered on January 7, 2015. Consequently, For his part, the management of the cinema has invoked his reception charter, prohibiting “the holding of political demonstrations”.

“But after this outcry. the documentary is reprogrammed for September 4, following the commitment of Valérie Pécresse, president of the Île-de-France region,” explains Isabelle Cottenceau. “She said she was scandalized by the censorship of the film, these are her words. We can therefore see it at the auditorium of the Ile-de-France regional council, which is right in Saint-Ouen. »»

Commitment in the secularism, freedom, memory: isabelle cottenceau’s name of freedom of expression

For her director. this documentary is a tribute to the designers and journalists of Charlie Hebdo ten years after the drama. Its vocation is not to forget what they suffered and in the name of what they were murdered.
The trial concerning the bombing against Charlie Hebdo took place in 2020. Lawyer Richard Malka became a civil party. It was his pleading that Isabelle Cottenceau wanted to highlight. “Besides, the title of the film comes from Me Malka,” said the director. “In his defense of Charlie Hebdo. his work” The right to piss off God “, he stressed that God does not need a lawyer, that he is great enough to be enough for himself, regardless of religions. From the moment I embed his step, it is a commitment in the name of freedom of expression and secularism. »»

Symbolic in pictures

The filmmaker’s work secularism, freedom, memory: isabelle cottenceau’s aims to be a vector for this frequently questioned secularism. a notion of right or left. “I qualify like a passer,” says Isabelle Cottenceau. “By putting in images of Me Malka’s pleading, I hope to make people understand where freedom of expression comes from. Furthermore, »»

She describes “God can defend herself on her own” as a symphony in images inspired by the argument of Richard Malka. a trip to our history. “There is no need to argue!” She insists. “The film makes it possible to refresh the memory. we evoke the era of the Enlightenment, the encyclopedists, Diderot, Alembert, the Declaration of Human Rights, the right to caricature and blaspheme … more than two centuries of history. Everything is based on dates and facts. He reminds all of this to those who have forgotten. This is why I encourage schools, cinemas or others to take it as an educational secularism, freedom, memory: isabelle cottenceau’s tool. Since its release, I have left everyone who wanted to broadcast it to do so. My film exists beyond me and that’s fine. »»