“When I arrived at France Judo, I discovered a new universe. I knew judo from a professional point of view as a journalist but now I had to discover it from the inside. I realised that a lot of things had already been done to promote judo on national territory. However, I had the feeling that something was missing, a film that summarised the life of a judoka.
In each sport, everyone lives their life as an athlete in their own way. Some are competitors and aim for the high level, others are simply practitioners. In judo, there is something specific, different from any other sport. Judoka are inhabited, from an early age and throughout their lives, by the values that judo instills in them. The more I talked to people, the more I immersed myself in this dimension. In judo there is a permanent culture that allows the sport to continue to live in modernity while maintaining tradition. As such, the culture of high ranked judoka is very interesting.
In the wake of the pandemic period that made us all suffer, great pride was reflected in the words of the judoka I met. There was pride for their discipline, its practice and what it could bring to society. 'We are proud to be judoka, proud of our values' was the message and we focused on that at first.
In a second approach, we wanted to perpetuate this feeling. We had a lot of little clips and we were looking for something more global that could embrace that beautiful pride.
From an operational point of view, being from the west of France, I knew of the existence of the Parc Oriental de Maulévrier (https://www.parc-oriental.com/) near Cholet. It very quickly turned out to be the ideal place to shoot our clip. By relying on the landscapes offered by the park, we were able to retrace 'the life of a judoka,’ from the first steps to adulthood and then to the senior ranks.
A character, storyteller of this story, quickly imposed himself: Thierry Marx, the famous starred chef, a black belt in judo. His philosophical approach to life suited the project perfectly. I met him for the first time during the Paris Grand Slam. We agreed on the principle and we moved on to filming. We had planned to do it in the spring when the cherry trees are in bloom. Getting closer to the Japanese spirit seemed very important to us.
The shooting took place over one day, with around forty participants. The local club was very supportive. We also worked closely with the park, who explained each place to us, so that we could create parallels with the different periods of a judoka's life.
Some time later, I showed the pre-editing to Thierry Marx and he was delighted. He is really committed, on a voluntary basis, very strongly by our side and we thank him for that.
Our idea was to follow up on this feeling of pride that I explained earlier. We also wanted the clip to be shared as widely as possible, even beyond the borders of judo. I must say that the community has been very responsive. There were more than a million views on the content created around the video.
Much more than a judoka recruitment campaign for the start of the 2022 school year, ‘Une Vie de Judoka’ is an ode to the promotion of our values. Of course this comes with messages saying that judo is the best sport for children and that we should be proud of our values but it is much more.
Today we are about to reach pre-Covid numbers in terms of participation. It is good even if there is still work to be done. In our next campaign, we will put more emphasis on high visibility clips, in a 30 second TV format. We want to say that judo can be practised everywhere and by everyone. It will be a bit more aggressive in terms of communication. We want to help the 5,000 French clubs and no doubt we will involve our champions more. It's all very exciting."
As Stéphane explains, judo is indeed a life story, the story of a life. It can start at any age and above all it brings values, which in the disturbed world in which we live, are more than necessary. Fair wind to ‘Une Vie de Judoka.’ Many of them will meet again, some of them in the stands of the Paris Grand Slam next February. Until then, enjoy your life, as a judoka.
© Photos France Judo