By way of Collision Detection, I learned this morning about The French Democracy, a machinima film created with The Movies. The film deals with the recent riots in Paris' suburbs and seems to have been created by a French player. While some details are questionable (cops don't ask for passports but for I.D.'s) the film is a quite powerful example of the potential of The Movies. When The Sims was launched, some players started creating social commentary photo albums in order to tell stories of abuse. Technically, the quality of these videos is impressive. I haven't yet played The Movies but it seems to be a really nifty piece of software. I understand that the game models Hollywood and therefore all the props and characters are created to look like Made in USA. It would have been an enourmous task to include diversity in, say, buildings. Still, it is both funny and interesting that this film that is supposed to take place in the French banlieus looks so American, complete with US flags hanging from the walls. Anyway, I thought that this would interest some of our readers. You can download the movie from here (13 megs).