La Nouelywood: The banlieues of France

Residents of a French housing estate get behind the camera to challenge negative stereotypes of multicultural banlieues.

For the past 30 years, whenever filmmakers have sought to depict the supposed social ills of France's multicultural banlieues, or suburbs, they have headed to La Noue.

The sprawling housing estate is located in the city of Montreuil, on the periphery of Paris. La Noue's mostly neat tower blocks in muted shades of grey, cream and brown have become the backdrop onto which filmmakers have projected their negative stereotypes of life in the banlieues.