This October, Beijing celebrates international Animation Day.

The French Cultural Center appear to have put in the most effort, screening an entire month's worth of films -- from graduate work to animation shorts to movies and talks by internationally acclaimed directors. The centre's biggget, however, is an audience with Christian Volckman, director of one of this year's coolest films, Renaissance. 　　

The film itself is a thrilling and boldly experimental noir that tells the story of care-worn cop Karas'hunt for a young genetic scientist called IIona whose disappearance is linked to her work on premature ageing in a futuristic world where the city's biggest company, Avaion, worms its way into every aspect of society in order to sell youth and beauty to the masses.

For those interested in animation and film making in general, not only is Renaissance and Intelligent take on the ehtical Implications of genetic engineerling,but also a stunning example of the way in which motion capture technology and monochrome animations can be used to such great effectthat, for reason's you can't quite put your finger on, they can create people,cities and situations often more poignant than the real things.

The beauty of animation this advanced is that it allows film makers to create a world that pushes a whole different set of buttons and "makes the spectators subcomscious work overtime", as Volckman himself recently pointed out.

Christian Volckman will appear at the French Cultural Centre today along with one of the animators from French film Skyland.

(TimeOut Beijing via CRI October 27, 2006)