Philomène Rémy - the one who never gives up.
Today I present to you Philomène Precisely, it is obviously not a coincidence that at the age of 7 Philo had a decisive encounter - yes at the age of 7! when you are born determined, age is just a number - at the family hotel which hosted some celebrities for the Festival. Among them - "I'm talking to you about a time that those under twenty cannot know" - was François Chalais, a true icon of great reporting,both a magnetic interviewer of 70s film stars and a great adventurer in all areas where the big story is made, in fury and especially then, napalm. François Chalais was in fact the great witness of the Vietnam War whose TV reports contained as much awareness and accuracy in the description of the devastating madness as Coppola's Apocalypse Now, which stunned the world in 79. "Stop to annoy the gentleman…”, it is likely that Mom must have gently lectured her Philomena in these terms, when at the age of 7 she addressed this great 70-year-old man. She already knew that she would be a great reporter to travel the world, like him, no less. He was also a kind man. We are often caring and human when we have seen so much of the darkness in the hearts of men, directly, without the slightest filter. And the gentleman was not at all bothered to see so much sparkle in this kid's eyes, on the contrary. Long later, until his death, the old man continued to correspond with Philo, who had made him his Pygmalion in major reporting journalism. Before the big report, however, it is necessary to complete certain parallel formalities, which we call studies. Quality business school (ESCE), passport to finance practiced in London, in a time not so long ago before Brexit, when financiers of all stripes believed they had reached their nirvana by reaching the City. Philo did the job, as they say, respecting all the codes of a profession where risk-taking is calculated and ensured with a view to a horizon that everyone believes to be unsurpassable: enrichment and monumental profit in the short term ! Philo has another conception of enrichment, much less materialistic, and anyway, the K had just bitten her. She didn't need him to change her life! but she made do with it... In recovery, as life seems to insist on carrying Philo to the end of his dreams, the time has come to fulfill his oath as a little girl in Gérardmer, to become a great reporter, here and now. Joining Chanel 4 News, its editorial team sent it without fanfare to Mali where a dirty ethnic war and terrorism were smoldering under the ashes. The only or almost only reporter available in the cauldrons of Gao and Timbuktu, Philo is contacted by other media, including France 24. Her incisive reports are noticed. Her first stripes pushed her to i-Télé who hired her. Philo's salary is much less than in London when she played banker. No matter, today we paid her enough to discover the world and try to transform it by testifying, it's not nothing and it was her dream. She will be in Nepal in 2015, during the terrible earthquake; she will report poignantly on the terrifying Ebola epidemic in Guinea; it will also go to Iraq and Nigeria, other hot spots on our planet. On the aircraft carrier Charles De Gaule she will report on our troops on mission. She will go to Gaza to bear witness to the brutal violence between two peoples. A journey that will mark her for life. One day, however, a well-known Breton shareholder, determined to take over i-Télé by disrupting its editorial line, provoked a strike which decimated the corpus of journalists. C-News had just been born, but without Philo or many other talents from the channel who left to look elsewhere. Philo was quick to bounce back. After years spent jumping on the first plane to cover an immediate event on the ground, now is the time for reflection and foresight. She would like to take the time to understand and analyze a region.
Direction New Delhi in India, a formidable observation post of all the ferments and intense contradictions of our humanity,India and its more than a billion souls united under the same flag, since the departure of the English in 47, but torn between its atomized civilizations, its ethnic groups, its castes, its religions, its myths and superstitions, prey to incredible inequalities, from extreme poverty to the splendor of its modern-day maharajahs, its “slumdogs” and its “millionaires”... There, she occupies the position of bureau chief for France 24 and dreams to start making documentaries in neighboring countries, which she will do. Philo will leave all Western prejudice at the border and will love India passionately. She will examine the phenomenon of Islamic radicalization in the Maldives, the dangerous other side of the tourist postcard where the water is inevitably turquoise and the sand white for eternity. She will develop a conviction. It is too easy today in this world to be Manichean, for or against without nuance, to exclude the other and their difference without the slightest compromise, to yell with the wolves of a single camp, to proclaim one's superiority over the other, “like that, because it is like that, not otherwise”, very (too) often with religions as a pretext… a bit short of rationalism! It's a different story to advocate objectivity, lucidly analyzing the paths that lead to reason. True courage, the most subversive after all, is wanting to build bridges between two hatreds. So what is so unbearable about wanting to live in peace and progress together? In each documentary, Philo exercises her ability to reason accurately and objectively, using all her intact reflexes as an all-terrain observer. They are interested in women forced into exile during their periods, in certain regions of India and Nepal, a disastrous superstition rooted in backward countrysides. The unfortunate girls, deemed impure during their periods, are forced to take refuge in cabins far from the village, where they often find infections, cold, snakes... and death. At the other end of the spectrum, Philo also meets the light, in the person of Kailash Satyarthi, the Indian co-winner with Malala Yousafrai, the Pakistani, of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Kailash Satyarthi began his commitment in organizing raids against factories and workshops, with the aim of freeing entire families forced to work to repay a loan they had taken out. It also works to prohibit child labor, particularly in the textile industry.This episode especially touches us at Mister K; we feel deeply invested in having to provide you with virtuous collections that do not ignore the human factor and the issues of the planet throughout our production chain. Exploiting children in the textile industry, and everywhere else, revolts us.Philomène will follow the Kailash teams in one of her raids to save children exploited in a clandestine embroidery workshop for a France 24 report. She found a few weeks later one of the rescued children who confided to her: “I I would like to stay with my family but that is not possible. My parents cannot afford to feed me. So either there is room for me in a Kailash Satyarthi education center or I should go back to work. » The kid's maturity and the question of conscience he posed upset Philomène. For Philo, India is a “soul wringer”, these are his words. During his story I thought I was rereading Antonio Tabucchi's captivating Indian Nocturne, so far from the shimmering tourist clichés or a selfie posing “silly” in front of the Taj Mahal. In search of a missing friend, the hero gets lost in all the slums of India and its teeming crowds. At the turn of a sentence he says: "perhaps all these bodies are like suitcases, we carry ourselves in them...". Failing to find the friend, he finds himself. However, there is no question of Philo stopping for a moment and taking a breath, exercises that are foreign to him, which does not prevent reflection on the life that passes.“Journalism is contact and distance,” said Hubert Beuve-Méry, founder of the newspaper Le Monde.Nib: CH The main trait of your character?Curious, determined and optimistic. What quality do you prefer in a man/woman?Humor and sincerity. Your main fault?Impulsive, impatient, sulky, not a morning person, the list is long! Your favorite occupation (passion)?Remake the world with exciting people while eating cheese and more particularly Munster! (soft cheese which smells very strong but remains delicious. Your dream of happiness?That I can finally buy Munster in India. The country where you would like to live?For the moment, I still have so much to discover in India. This country is the size of a continent! For the rest, almost all countries! For what ? So it’s more complex to answer this “Why” or to summarize because there is a whole world to explore and I am not closing any doors. Your favorite work? The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
It's a great classic but should be read from cradle to age 80 and beyond.
This is the book that never leaves me.
This is simply life, or rather what life should be.
Your hero or heroine?All women are my heroes. The gift of nature that I would like to have?Teleportation or reincarnation but only in Keith Richards. Your current state of mind?Think out of the box. The Fault that inspires you the most indulgence?People who don't talk before their first coffee because I do the same. Your motto?Forget that you have no chance. You never know, a misunderstanding could work. (yes I know great cinematographic reference but I applied it a lot in my professional life.) What is your greatest pride?Knowing how to take big turns in my life when it no longer suits me. For example, moving from my London life in finance to journalism and more recently resigning from a permanent contract then going to live in India. What is the mantra that suits you the most in our collections:Never give up and Forever Young : I love them all and I think they are very related too, a bit like legos that all fit together it seems. But if I had to choose 'Never give up' and 'Forever Young' because I hope to remain a big child forever. What does our inspiration inspire you? Mister k brand. ?Admiration, lots of admiration, one hell of a girl (Charlotte) and a vision of life that makes one capable of moving mountains. What would you like to say, advise, to people who discover you today?I swear I brush my teeth after eating Munster cheese! No longer seriously, silky curious, listening to others but also listening to you to understand what you really want, travel and try to improve yourself a little every day (in India, we call it Karma and I believe in it!) PURSUE PHILOMEN : A SELECTION OF REPORTS BY PHILOMENE: |
