Al Jazeera English launches new series “The Big Picture: France in Focus”

For its latest series, Al Jazeera English's multi-award-winning strand The Big Picture takes a deep dive into the most pressing issues facing France. The Big Picture: France in Focus is an original four-part series presented by journalist and documentary film-maker Myriam Francois.
 
Hot on the heels of one of the most divisive election campaigns in memory, this series examines four key, keenly contested areas of current debate. It showcases thought-provoking reports featuring an array of contributors across social and cultural divides, as well as incisive discussions with artists, intellectuals, activists, students and officials.
 
“This is the first time that Al Jazeera English has produced a discussion series specifically about France,” said Head of Talk Shows, Salah A A Khadr. “France in Focus was recorded in our Paris bureau, as well as among different French communities, helping to unpack social and political issues affecting a cultural powerhouse and one of the biggest economies in the world.” 
 
The series explores the tensions in France’s reimagined secularism or ‘laicite’; the legacy of colonialism and how it plays out in contemporary politics; the rise of populism and its effect on political discourse & society; and the state of civil liberties since the yellow vest movement, while taking into account new laws that deal with security threats.
 
“I’m delighted to be hosting The Big Picture: France in Focus,” said presenter Myriam Francois. “We are aiming to prioritize new and alternative voices that you don’t always see on screen and to present the wide variety of new opinion and innovative thought-currents in France.”
 
Guests include filmmaker Dorothée Myriam Kellou; vice-president of SOS Racisme Saphia Ait Ourabi; former government adviser Hakim El Karoui; journalist Rokhaya Diallo; academic Aurelien Mondon; film director Djigui Diarra; podcaster and author Grace Ly; pan-Africanist activist Mwazulu Diyabanza; decolonial therapist Selma Sardouk, Amnesty International officer Anne-Sophie Simpere and rapper Christophe Brito among many others.
 
The Big Picture: France in Focus airs weekly on Sundays on Al Jazeera English at 22:30 GMT (00:30 France) and then repeats on Mondays at 09:30 GMT (11:30 France); Tuesdays at 03:30 GMT (05:30 France); Wednesdays at 16:30 GMT (18:30 France); Thursdays at 05:30 GMT (07:30 France); and Fridays at 23:30 GMT (Saturdays at 01:30 France).