La Rochelle | Chinese Cinema Week

The Centre Intermondes in La Rochelle, France has a Chinese Cinema Week (Semaine du Cinema chinois) running from 27 November - 3 December. This is the 2nd edition of the festival and two Chinese animation film makers are in residence. Download programme [in French]

In connection with the festival, from November 1 - December 10, the Chinese animation film makers, Yan Baishen and Guo Chunning, will be in residence at Centre Intermondes.

The Centre Intermondes is the brainchild of the sociologist Jean Duvignaud who visualised it as a centre for the exchange of ideas among creative artists, having as its purpose the stimulation of public debate on issues of creativity and cultural policy. Reviving the ongoing practice of critical questioning is seen as essential to the very existence of democracy. The city of La Rochelle has made available the premises of the Maison Henri II or the Hötel Pontard with its superb renaissance façade, and it is thanks to this support that the projet saw the light of day in 2004.

The Centre Intermondes has been officially associated with the Maison des Cultures du Monde since 2006, with the City of La Rochelle, with Institut Français (Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs) since 2008. Such links allow the Centre to be part of major national and international events and celebrations, for which artists in residence are invited from all disciplines. Supported by such partnerships, about a hundred artists of different nationalities have been involved. Guy Martinière, President of the Centre Intermondes, writes : ‘International cultural exchanges are the raison d’être of the Centre Intermondes. Inviting artists of different nationalities to La Rochelle is one way of ensuring wide acknowledgment and recognition of our harbour city. From the point of view of the artists, whether local or regional, there is the opportunity for experimental work to develop and blossom. Writers, directors, both in the theatre and in the cinema, visual artists, actors, choreographers have all benefited. They have come from countries near France and indeed, from other continents. Switzerland, Canada, Lebanon, Senegal, Brazil, Australia, India, China, Gabon, Iraq, Burkina Faso have all been represented here.’ The centre Intermondes seeks to encourage and develop such exchanges, local, regional and international, with the aim of facilitating contemporary creativity in all forms of artistic expression, and thus to build bridges between cultures to the mutual enrichment of all.