Canal+ Documentary Production brings us its US moment with 2 exclusive CAPA documentaries

While for now the world’s attention is focused on surveys and TV debates, it will have to wait until November 8 to know the outcome of the Clinton / Trump duel. To accompany this exceptional evening of coverage, CANAL+ has chosen two exclusive documentaries produced by CAPA, “Showtime !” and “Pour qui roule Hollywood ?”, two expert looks at the rise of show-biz and tabloid politics.

“Showtime” by Laurence Haïm

8 November at 10.50 PM on Canal+

The duel between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is unprecedented, it has become a veritable entertainment show and the winner on 8 November will be crowned as a genuine TV Reality star. This Broadway-show-like presidential campaign is quite a particular one. Laurence Haïm followed the campaign into the country’s most remote states, as well as each camp’s primaries and their conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia. It’s tabloid politics in all its splendour: it is more a matter of health records, Miss Piggy, or Duck Dynasty, than Afghanistan, the situation in Aleppo or the economy, as Dan Rather points out, lamenting the pitiful reality of this second decade of the 21st Century. And as the campaign advances, the blows are increasingly below the belt. Even Robert De Niro threatened to punch Trump after the sexist video involving the Republican candidate was leaked by the “Washington Post” on 7 October 2016.

It took the question put by undecided voter Ken Bone, about the country’s energy resources to refocus the second debate between the two candidates on a political issue. Laurence Haïm tries to understand how the US political world has become a no-holds-barred arena. A show stopping spectacle that is being lapped up by the social networks, which both accelerate and amplify what the news channels pump out daily. Basically, it’s SHOWTIME!

“Pour qui roule Hollywood ?” by Vanina Kanban

8 November 11.45 PM on Canal +

On November 8, America will elect its 45th president. Hollywood, land of legends but also of political engagement, will have largely contributed to the vote. But who is it rooting for? The Democrats or the Republicans? To find out, Vanina Kanban spent many weeks sounding out the campaign climate in Hollywood. For decades now, driven by the same fever, the movie mecca and the presidential candidates hit the campaign trail at the same time. Thus Hollywood has become one of the key playmakers of US political and social life.

Perceived as open, humanist and tolerant, this formidable entertainment machine takes its place in the order of things as a key pro-Democrat force. To do so, it relies on quite a number of artists, people like: George Clooney, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt or even Scarlett Johansson – who do not hesitate to promote their candidates at highly mediatized galas and fund raising dinners. But despite the actors, directors or producers who have publicly taken a stand in favour of Hillary Clinton, Hollywood remains essentially, but discreetly, conservative…