L’irian Jaya, a Radio-Canada production, is part of a new primetime weekly doc strand, Zone Libre. Most of the productions are produced in-house (75%) and the rest come from independents. (To the delight of producer Louise Lemelin and host Jean-Francois Lepine, Zone Libre collected one of the coveted Rockies after its debut season.)

L’Irian Jaya was shot in one the most remote areas of Indonesia which, until very recently, was closed to journalists and tv cameras.

‘It is one of the last undeveloped areas of the world,’ says Lemelin.

The doc captures the Danis people, a tribe Lemelin says ‘really live in the Stone Age.. . . Most of them live completely naked and have had hardly any contact with modern civilization.’

The Danis is one of about 250 tribes in Indonesia. Their lifestyle is currently threatened by the development of a nearby gold mine, Freeport McMoran. Lemelin says the mine is expected to produce gold and copper for the next 30 years.

The doc follows Buzz Maxey, the son of Canadian missionaries who were among the first white settlers in the area in the late ’40s. Maxey was raised among the Danis. Now in his forties, he works as a development consultant and is married to a Canadian.

Maxey helped the production team to travel to the remote area, acted as an interpreter and helped the crew navigate the area.

Cameraman on the doc was Patrice Massenet.

L’Irian Jaya was broadcast last October on Radio-Canada and also aired on TV5, the international French network.

Lemelin, a producer for the last 10 years, lists a stay at src’s flagship current affairs program Le Point on her resume, along with other current affairs shows. In 1997, she won a bronze plaque at the Columbus International Film and Video Festival, a special mention at France’s Festival international du grand reportage et du document d’actualite, and the prize for investigative reporting at the Festival international du scoop et du journalisme in France.

In 1990 and 1997, she won the Judith Jasmin Award, Quebec’s most prestigious journalism prize. Lemelin has also been nominated several times for the Prix Gemeaux.

She is currently working on a program which questions whether Quebec teachers are adequately trained and educated. Also en route is a production about a group of rich American heirs who invest their fortunes in social causes. As well, she also hopes to do a documentary piece about Iran.