Premières Lignes

There is what you see, what some people want you to see, and what you don't see. Never has France known such a concentration of private media. A few billionaire industrialists, owners of televisions, radios, newspapers use their media to defend their private interests. To the detriment of information of public interest. By hiding what is essential, by magnifying what is accessory, these media shape, orientate, hysterize for some the debate. With the complicity of certain political leaders, who willingly accept it. Mediapart and Premières Lignes tell you what goes on behind the scenes in the media.

The Arab revolutions swept away the old regimes and were led by young modern people, invested with a global culture, internet, huge frustration, and a need for freedom and emancipation. Women played a major role in the revolutions. Some even became icons. Women are becoming the front line in a clash between secularism and traditionalism. Frenzy and sexual violence; taboos and prohibitions; constant stimulation on internet and TV... How will the Islamists handle this explosive cocktail?

Three weeks with the Kurdish fighters of Sinjar, on the front line against the jihadists of the Islamic State

How the American coffee chain, now global, has conquered the urban middle class. This investigation on three continents reveals the carefully hidden face of the brand.

Green Warriors Indonesia: The World’s Most Polluted River is a film by Martin Boudot (2018) that investigates the impacts of the pollution of the Citarum River in Indonesia. The film highlights the implications of textile factories’ poor wastewater treatment practices on public health, and shows how these are partly driven by the consequences of the unequal power dynamics between the factories and the multinational garment companies based in the ‘West’. Boudot challenges the viewer to increase consumer demand for eco-label garments as a way to try and address this. This analysis finds that in doing so, the film foregrounds investigation undertaken by the European reporters at the expense of contributions of local research and activism, rendering it archetypal of the “white saviour industrial complex” (Cole, 2012).

In the form of an investigation, this documentary, filmed in Morocco and France, goes to the other side of the mirror of the beautiful photos of the kingdom, to reveal the gray areas of King Mohammed VI.

For decades, their factories secretly dumped toxic products into rivers, groundwater systems and soil. This pollution affected thousands, causing disabilities, cancers and death.

What we now call an IQ test was originally developed by Alfred Binet at the start of the 20th century as a way to measure developmental delays in schoolchildren. But with the eugenics craze at its peak, Binet's concept was soon appropriated and exploited by those who wished to guarantee the ethnic purity of their society. This program looks at the history of IQ assessment, from Ellis Island evaluations to William Shockley's racist declarations in the 1970s, and reveals how social policies were influenced by the idea that intelligence is set at birth. In addition, Charles Murray, co-author of The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, defends his views.

We're at the beginning of an artificial intelligence revolution that promises to change everything. Already, virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa have become a part of our daily life. But in order to run their applications, digital giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook, employ an army of invisible labour. These are disposable workers, paid as little as 10 cents an hour to feed information into computer systems. They receive neither benefits nor contract and normal labor law doesn't apply to them. Whilst millions of men and women are training artificial intelligence for next to nothing, others are being hired and hide out of sight to clean up social networks. We went undercover as one of these web cleaners, working as a content moderator for Facebook. To meet the workers hiding behind your screen, we're taking you to the factory of the future, one of the digital economy's best kept secrets.

They're bankers, traders, investment funds executives. They forgot all about morality to make money. The entire world had to suffer the consequences of their actions. They impoverished countries, drove millions of workers into unemployment, and contributed to the rise in extremism. So who are they? And, after the 2008 crisis, were the real culprits condemned? Could there be another?

Children as young as three are becoming addicted to mobile phones, harming their development and causing possible long-term damage. We follow some of the youngest cases and hear how our brains are affected by exposure to screens.

Johannesburg is considered the most uranium-contaminated city in the world. Waste dumps from around 600 abandoned mines sit next to residential communities, blowing polluted dust into homes and contaminating the soil and water supplies. To get a sense of the sheer extent of the problem, Martin Boudot and his team of researchers investigate. Equipped with a Geiger counter, they uncover some dangerous realities...

Our plate is our most powerful weapon in fighting global warming and in protecting our planet. Today, our diets play a major role in the threats weighing on our planet. But, there is hope. Investigative journalist Benoît Bringer sets off on a global search for women and men who are inventing a new dietary model, one which respects both humankind and nature. This documentary gives us hope, showing us how we can each be a force for change and develop recipes for an economically viable dietary transition.

A documentary that explores the dark secrets behind the origin and development of the fast fashion and its disastrous consequences on people's health and our planet.