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“Mayotte, the tear.” by Hôtel★★★ Restaurant gourmand Coco Lodge Majunga.

Independent filmmaker, Stéphane Cazères specialises in documentaries on social or humanitarian impact on the overseas. His first film, realized there is already 10 years, dealt with the question of miscegenation in Reunion. It has also recently directed a documentary drawing the portrait of a Malagasy mother struggling to educate their children in a village north of Tulear.
This film, title “Sisea, Malagasy mother”, currently runs in many festivals of documentary films.

Stéphane Cazères spent a month filming the living conditions for unaccompanied minors in the slum of Kaweni.

Stéphane Cazères, Independent Director of documentaries on social or humanitarian character, has focused recently on the case of isolated minors of Mayotte. He thus embarked on the realization of a documentary 52 min on the children of the slums of Kaweni.
After a month of filming on the island, It now continues in Paris to debrief sociologists and politicians on this issue. The release of the film is scheduled for September 2016.

“Mayotte, the tear.” It is the provisional title Stéphane Cazères has chosen to give his documentary, but who says already long on the message that he wishes to move to viewers. Informed by a friend working at the CHM, the young filmmaker decided to alert the public on the situation of unaccompanied minors of Mayotte with a documentary of 52 min. “My film provides a State of the art, but is also intended to denounce this situation extremely worrying in a french Department.”, the Director explains.

A MONTH IN THE SLUMS OF KAWENI
Through this documentary, Stéphane Cazères addresses many problems inherent in the territory of Mayotte. Immigration is, of course, at the heart of these questions since it affects all the other : health, education, social situation, etc. In order to penetrate to the heart of the slum, the filmmaker sought different associations who regularly work to help children, including the Village of Eva, Tama and solidarity Mayotte. It has also assembled a team of assistants mahorais to deal with the inevitable cultural language and offset dams which could be a problem between him and these children.
In his documentary, Stéphane Cazères give the floor to all stakeholders of the island : associations, Police, politicians. “My goal is to point malfunctions that could lead to such a situation and let then the Viewer is his own idea.”, says - it. He also met the children and tried to shoot with the most possible decency the life they lead in Kaweni bangas, While highlighting the actions of associations working to try to offer them a better life and in particular access to schooling.

MANY OBSTACLES
Upon his arrival in Mayotte, Stéphane Cazères has put ten days to adapt both the situation of the island of perfumes tends to be demonized in the national media. “I was extremely afraid of delinquency arriving on the island and in particular make me shirk my filming equipment.”, He says. The framework proposed by the local associations fortunately helped to avoid this kind of inconvenience and Stéphane Cazères was able to make his documentary in good conditions, as it was much documented remotely so that everything is ready upon arrival. The other major difficulty which he encountered was the lack of cooperation of the authorities which allowed to film the kwassa-kwassas or new credit (Administrative Retention Center). To justify their failure, They explained that filming people in this kind of situation infringed human dignity. “I did not understand their point of view”, exclaims Stéphane Cazères, “It is not by concealing certain tragic situations that human dignity is safeguarded, quite the contrary !”, indignant for.

A BLOCKED SITUATION
In his documentary, the filmmaker tries to explain to the public the inextricable knot of the problem of illegal immigration in Mayotte. “Many associations are fighting so that the slum children have the possibility to attend school normally as is their right. I wanted to finish my film on a note of hope by showing that some of them succeed.”, explains Stéphane Cazères while continuing however, “But the problem does unfortunately not there, because adults, These children will find themselves confronted with the problem of ’ job that is becoming increasingly rare in Mayotte. It is almost certain that the labour market will be unable to offer a job to this huge concentration of people...”, He laments. For him, the real solution would be that local actors conduct joint actions in order to exit the island in the lagoon of this situation. Now finished in Mayotte, filming continues today in Paris to probe the sociologists, but also the Ministers on this issue. Once its completed documentary, Stéphane Cazères account offer to the french documentary film festivals, but also foreigners. He then hopes to be able to sell it to interested TV channels.

by Hôtel★★★ Restaurant gourmand Coco Lodge Majunga.