In 2005, a series of protests and “riots” erupted outside Paris in response to the electrocution of two North African boys during a police chase. Upset by how the mass media portrayed the incident, a 27 year old gamer named Alex Chan created a short video about the event from the prospective of immigrant youth in France using machinima, a form of DIY filmmaking that uses virtual video game environments and in-game characters to tell new narratives.
Made in only 4 days, the machinima piece echos the frustration and discrimination felt by France’s first- and second-generation Asian, Arab and African immigrants. We’re excited to see people using machinima techniques to highlight socio-political issues and even though it’s a few years old now, The French Democracy illustrates that the genre can have a political message.