documentary

ESSAY: DON’T CALL IT FOUND FOOTAGE: SANDBOX AS JEU VIDEO VÉRITÉ

Charlotte Clerici, Lucas Azemar, Sandbox (Bac à sable), 2023

One of the most captivating yet overlooked facets of Sandbox, an ethnographic and impressionistic study by Lucas Azémar and Charlotte Cherici of a French Grand Theft Auto V roleplay server, is the filmmakers’ innovative and meticulous process. To fully appreciate the originality of their documentation, it is essential to understand the context in which it was created.

As previously mentioned, Azémar and Cherici encountered the French GTA V roleplay community on Twitch, Amazon’s gaming streaming platform. Roleplay refers to a community of players who assume the identities and behaviors of specific characters, interacting with others in a manner driven by narrative or real-life simulation, diverging from the predefined storyline set by Rockstar Games. This vibrant subculture within the broader GTA V user community is often enhanced through modifications (mods) that enable more detailed interactions, exemplified by well-known platforms such as FiveM and GTA Network. These players choose Twitch as their preferred broadcasting platform, streaming gaming sessions live to an audience that includes both roleplayers and non-roleplayers. Both filmmakers are well-versed in gaming culture. Azémar, in particular, delved into gaming themes in his first film, Life on Earth, which was his graduation project at the prestigious school HEAD (acronym of Haute École d’Art et de Design) in Geneva, Switzerland. Similarly, Cherici has explored the concept of roleplay, though her focus has extended beyond digital environments.

Their first joint endeavor, Sandbox, captures the dynamics of a French roleplaying community in an exploratory and experimental, rather than didactic, style. Azémar and Cherici adopt an ethnographic approach, positioning themselves as both observers and engaged participants. Mirroring the style of Knit’s Island, the documentary eschews traditional talking heads and omniscient narration. Instead, it unfolds through a series of vignettes where players fully embody their chosen identities throughout their interactions. Exceptions occur with the occasional trolls or uninformed users, who are either expelled or gently asked to leave the server, informally “the island”, by the all-seeing referees. To preserve the authenticity essential to this unique form of play, Azémar and Cherici opted to forgo the traditional method of editing found footage collected from Twitch. Instead, they fully immersed themselves in the game’s environment to pursue what we can call a specific kind of jeu video vérité (truthful gaming), the game video essay equivalent of cinema vérité, a documentary filmmaking that combines naturalistic techniques with observational cinema, emphasizing a candid approach to its subjects. 

Jeu vidéo vérité embodies a particular style of game video essay that aims to capture and present video game experiences in a truthful, impressionistic, and immersive manner. This method proves effective and viable, emphasizing the authenticity of virtual experiences through spontaneous and unscripted interactions within digital gaming environments. 

Among the features of jeu vidéo vérité we can identify direct engagement…

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Sandbox (Bac à sable)

Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azemar

documentary, 58’, 2023, France

Production: Jérôme Blesson

Screenplay: Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar

Filming: Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar

Editing: Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar, Mila Olivier

Music: Simon Averous

Sound: Pierre Oberkampf

Life on Earth

Lucas Azemar

short, 35’, 2019, Switzerland/France 

This content is exclusive to Patreon subscribers. To gain full access, consider joining our vibrant community.

VIDEO ESSAY: BAC À SABLE AS GTA V ETHNOGRAPHY

Selected for Cinéma du Réel in 2023, Sandbox (Bac à sable) is the directorial debut of Lucas Azémar and Charlotte Cherici. Entirely shot entirely within a Grand Theft Auto 5roleplay server, this documentary offers a deep dive into a French gamer community that transcends the conventional or “expected” gameplay. 

In gaming jargon, the term sandbox refers to a style of gameplay where players can explore and interact with a world with minimal limitations on their actions. Sandbox games typically offer a high degree of freedom, allowing players to create, modify, or destroy their environment and influence the simulated reality in both minor and significant ways. This can range from constructing buildings to altering the landscape, to creating intricate narratives or scenarios. Given this definition, sandbox as a title for a documentary about roleplay within a game like Grand Theft Auto V is quite apt. In fact, GTA V’s roleplay servers function as a sandbox environment in the truest sense: they provide a framework within which players can live out complex, interwoven lives as characters of their own creation, with the game world serving as an open canvas for their narratives. These servers expand the conventional boundaries of the game, moving beyond its original missions and storylines to embrace a form of play that is driven entirely by player choice and creativity. Players on these servers adopt nuanced character identities and engage in narrative-driven activities, effectively sidelining the original storyline crafted by Rockstar Games. Such depth in interaction is facilitated by mods like FiveM or GTA Network, which make the roleplay experience possible.

Sandbox allows viewers to explore the lives of various characters – doctors, police officers, store owners and workers – each portrayed with unique backgrounds and ambitions. The documentary highlights the importance of server administrators who enforce rules to maintain realism and order, drawing parallels with super partes entities. These administrators are crucial in ensuring adherence to the roleplay’s shared norms and reprimanding those who deviate. Staying in character and respecting the assigned role is non-negotiable. 

Through its ethnographic lens, reminiscent of the approach seen in Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’s Knit’s Island, Sandbox is composed of self-contained vignettes that focus more on standalone, self enclosed narratives rather than recurring characters, with the notable exception of Astrio, the vigilant moderator depicted as a guardian of gameplay integrity, a Watchmen character donning a white suit and a hat, his face covered by a mask.

The film begins intriguingly with a “machinima within a machinima” – a meta-narrative technique where a shootout scene between thugs and special ops officers, viewed by avatars in a Los Santos movie theater, sets the stage. This is followed by a sequence featuring a job interview for a Weazel News cameraperson, possibly an alter ego of the director(s), intended for “research purposes”, illustrating the “free” nature of roleplay environments where participants shape their experiences within the confines of the world they inhabit.

(continues)


Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Sandbox (Bac a sable)

Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar

documentary, 58’, 2023, France

Production: Jérôme Blesson, La belle affaire productions

Screenplay: Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar

Filming: Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar

Editing: Charlotte Cherici, Lucas Azémar, Mila Olivier

Music: Simon Averous

Sound: Pierre Oberkampf

Mixing: Frédéric Belle

This content is exclusive to Patreon subscribers. To gain full access, consider joining our vibrant community.

MMF MMXXIV: BEFORE KNIT’S ISLAND, THERE WAS MARLOWE DRIVE

Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Marlowe Drive, digital video, color, sound, 34”, 2017.

Before embarking in their ambitious project Knit’s Island, which will be screened on March 14 2024 at IULM University in the context of the Game Video Essay program, filmmakers Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h directed a machinima documentary set in Grand Theft Auto V titled Marlowe Drive, an experimental film that explores video games environments as a context for making a documentary. 

This is how Guilhem Causse describes the film:

A director, Adam Kesher, from David Lynch’s film Mulholland Drive, lands in another fictional Los Angeles. It is in this Hollywood film landscape recreated by Rockstar Games, that this director sets out to find someone to talk to. He is looking for a bridge between the banks of reality and the imaginary. The film takes place on the game's multiplayer platform to meet “real” characters. It collects information on the individuals who inhabit this space and reintegrates the process of documentary filming into a virtual world. In a back and forth between staging and raw capture, the protagonist then lets himself be carried away into the current of a chaotic world that fascinates him, but which gradually overtakes him. Through his character and his encounters, we ourselves discover a virtual world. An autonomous world strangely close to a form of reality.

In other words, the conceptual foundation of Marlowe Drive (2018) was to document the virtual lives of avatars controlled by real people, thereby examining the intersection of our reality with the virtual environments created by video games. This is so meta, it hurts.

At any rate, this initial exploration set the stage for their later work, Knit’s Island, although the two projects engage with virtual spaces in distinctly different ways. The choice of GTA V for Marlowe Drive was deliberate, leveraging the game’s thematic elements of consumerism and the American dream to contrast sharply with the survivalist, post-apocalyptic setting of DayZ, the game chosen for Knit’s Island. This thematic divergence highlights…

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Marlowe Drive, digital video, color, sound, 34”, 2018.

Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Knit's Island, digital video, color, sound, 95”, 2022.

Read more about the 7th edition of the Milan Machinima Festival

This content is exclusive to Patreon subscribers. To gain full access, consider joining our vibrant community.

MMF MMXXIV: EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT KNIT’S ISLAND...

The Milan Machinima Festival is thrilled to present the full length documentary Knit’s Island as part of the Game Video Essay program. The film will be screened on March 14 2024 at IULM University. We are equally excited to present Angelo Careri’s insightful interview with the filmmakers, Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier and Quentin L’helgoualc’h. We are also sharing with our Patreon supporters the first of a series of exclusive excerpts of the film.

Thanks to Careri’s clever questions, we learn about the filmmakers’ deep engagement with the virtual world of DayZ, as they set out to examine the social and existential dimensions of online gaming communities. Their work blurs the boundaries between documentary filmmaking and virtual exploration, offering insights into how digital spaces can reflect and influence real human experiences and connections.

In this comprehensive and always compelling conversation that was shared with us by the film distributor, Square Eye Films, Causse, Barbier and L’helgoualc’h explain that the idea for the film began as an experiment during their studies at the Beaux-Arts. The young filmmakers were initially intrigued by the possibility of observing, rather than playing, within online games. This curiosity led to the discovery that games could serve as venues for documentary filmmaking, particularly after encountering players who used the game spaces for social interaction beyond the game’s intended mechanics.

The shift from Grand Theft Auto V, which was initially selected as a case study, to DayZ was influenced by the desire for a game that offered more realistic interactions and survival elements, contrasting with GTA V’s focus on consumerism. DayZ’s environment, which simulates a post-apocalyptic world requiring survival strategies and fostering player interactions, presented a compelling setting for exploring virtual community dynamics. The filming process involved significant preparation, both within and outside the game. The team had to manage survival elements like food and health for their avatars, navigate the game’s day/night cycle, and adjust to game updates that affected filming.

They described the experience as living a “double life,” balancing their real lives with their virtual existence in the game. The filmmakers experienced a gradual integration into the DayZ community, eventually being recognized and respected by other players. This acceptance allowed them to explore the communal and individual stories within the game, revealing layers of personal engagement and the blurring of lines between players’ virtual and real lives. The team was interested in how players and their avatars interact with the game’s boundaries and its virtual environment. They noted how the game became a space for contemplation and social interaction, contrasting with the fast-paced nature of contemporary internet culture. Knit’s Island is, first and foremost, an ethnography of online gaming spaces. 

The Covid-19 pandemic which began in March 2020 mirrored some of the post-apocalyptic themes in DayZ, adding a layer of relevance to the film. The lockdowns and restrictions of the pandemic paralleled the isolation and survival themes within the game, influencing both the players and the filmmakers. Post-filming, the directors expressed ambivalence about returning to DayZ purely for leisure, highlighting how their experience has irrevocably changed their perspective on the game. They feel that their connection to the game and its community is now intertwined with their roles as filmmakers.

Finally, we learn that the title Knit’s Island reflects the filmmakers’ intention to name and define the virtual space they explored, drawing inspiration from the concept of “ghost islands” on maps, places that are marked but don’t actually exist, analogous to the virtual spaces in video games…

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Knit’s Island, 2023.

Read more about the 7th edition of the Milan Machinima Festival

This content is exclusive to Patreon subscribers. To gain full access, consider joining our vibrant community.

MMF MMXXIV: GAME VIDEO ESSAY

Image by Dall-e 3

The Milan Machinima Festival MMXXIV is excited to unveil the 2024 Game Video Essay series, featuring a curated selection of international machinima that boldly departs from traditional narrative structures. Join us on Thursday, March 14, at Sala dei 146, IULM 6, for screenings of four groundbreaking works that push the boundaries of the documentary form, including two insightful presentations by the creators themselves.

Game video essay

March 14 2024, 14:00 - 17:00

Sala dei 146

IULM 6, IULM University

Via Carlo Bo 7, 20143 Milano

curated by Matteo Bittanti

Artists and filmmakers: Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll, Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L'helgoualc’h, Gina Hara, Yemen Liu.

Introduced in 2019, Game Video Essay showcases innovative machinima that transcends traditional narrative structures to explore a wide range of topics, from cultural and philosophical to environmental and abstract, using video games as an expressive canvas. These works diverge from conventional storytelling in machinima, instead offering a rich analysis and commentary on diverse issues through the unique perspective of video games. By repurposing game visuals and mechanics, these essays invite viewers to engage deeply with subjects that challenge and expand the dialogue beyond gaming into a broader cultural and societal context.

The Milan Machinima Festival is proud to present these game video essays as a testament to the evolving potential of games and video essays alike, fostering a deeper appreciation for this dynamic form of expression. The featured works in this year’s program explore themes of environmental change, artificial intelligence, virtual identity, and the role of machinima in contemporary art.

Yewen Liu’s Irreversible documents Greenpeace Poland’s innovative project to recreate the Bialowieża Primeval Forest within the virtual world of Minecraft. The forest, which has faced numerous challenges such as deforestation and ecological shifts, serves as a poignant symbol of the ongoing struggle against irreversible environmental changes. Liu’s machinima captures this virtual reforestation effort, juxtaposing it against the backdrop of the forest’s real-world struggles.

In Crowd Control, Canadian artists Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll examine the intersection of crowd simulation technology and the growing surveillance industry, focusing on the representation of the French Revolutionary mob in Assassin’s Creed Unity. By reflecting on depictions of crowds in art history and contemporary video game crowd simulations, the work questions how these technologies might shape the future of collective action and social unrest in an era of artificial intelligence.

Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h’s full-length documentary Knit’s Island delves into the online game DayZ, exploring a 250 square km virtual space where players enact a survivalist fiction. Using avatars, the filmmakers interact with the game’s community, blending in-game experiences with personal stories. The film investigates the dawn of virtual life integration and its implications for our world, offering insights into online interactions, virtual friendships, and the boundaries between digital and real-life identities.

Gina Hara’s MachinimaBodiesSpaceRhythm is a pioneering episodic series that showcases the voices of women and non-binary creators within the machinima sphere. Situated at the intersection of video games, cinema, and digital art, the series illuminates machinima’s unique, hybrid nature. Hara not only highlights machinima’s artistic potential but also prompts reflection on digital identities and the medium’s role in contemporary art.

These four works demonstrate the power of game video essays to explore complex themes and ideas, leveraging the unique affordances of video games to create compelling and thought-provoking experiences. By blurring the lines between gaming, cinema, and digital art, these essays challenge our understanding of what is possible within the machinima medium and invite us to consider the profound ways in which video games can shape our perceptions of the world around us.

As we navigate an increasingly digital landscape, the Game Video Essay platform serves as a vital platform for artists and filmmakers to interrogate the role of technology in our lives and to imagine new possibilities for creative expression. Through their innovative use of video game engines and their willingness to push the boundaries of traditional storytelling, these creators are charting new territories in the world of machinima and beyond.

Read more about the 7th edition of the Milan Machinima Festival

MMF MMXXIV: YEWEN LIU

The Milan Machinima Festival is excited to unveil a new machinima by Yewen Liu in a special program titled Game Video Essay. Join us for an exclusive screening on March 14 2024.

The Bialowieża Primeval Forest stands as a remarkable testament to the enduring majesty of temperate Europe’s natural landscapes, hosting an array of distinct ecological communities that have largely remained untouched. Commencing in the 1920s, the forest’s exploitation for economic purposes marked the beginning of significant changes to its pristine condition. In the aftermath of World War II, a mere 600 square kilometers of the original 1,500 square kilometers remained within Polish borders, with the remainder extending into Belarus. Presently, this forest confronts numerous challenges, including deforestation, ecological migratory shifts, displacement of local populations, and a noticeable decline in wildlife populations. In a novel initiative by Greenpeace Poland in 2018, GeoBoxers, a Danish company founded by Simon Lyngby Kokkendorff, Thorbjørn Nielsen and Nynne Sole Dalå,embarked on a project to digitally recreate Bialowieża within the virtual world of Minecraft. This endeavor aimed at virtual reforestation serves as a poignant symbol of hope and awareness, juxtaposed against the backdrop of the forest’s ongoing real-world struggles against irreversible environmental changes. The artist documented such an effort through the medium of machinima. World premiere.  

Yewen Liu, born in 1995, in China is a media artist whose work spans video art, digital installations, and computer games. With a keen focus on interrogating the role of digital media in contemporary storytelling, Liu reinterprets collective memories through her innovative artistic lens. Her exploration extends to themes such as gamification, geopolitics, and the broad societal and environmental implications of digitalization. Liu’s art is a conduit for sparking insightful contemplation on digital culture and its influence on our shared narrative. Through her diverse body of work, she invites audiences to engage with and reflect upon the intricate ways digital technologies, including games, shape and redefine our perceptions of the world.

Read more about the 7th edition of the Milan Machinima Festival



MMF MMXXIV: STEVEN COTTINGHAM

We are thrilled to reveal that Steven Cottingham’s latest work, As far as the drone can see, will be showcased in the upcoming edition of the Milan Machinima Festival.

With As far as the drone can see, Steven Cottingham navigates the complex terrain of warfare representation in the digital age, specifically through the lens of the military simulation software, ArmA 3, and its exclusion of female figures. Highlighting a critical perspective on the flood of images emerging from contemporary conflict zones, the artist questions the authenticity of such visuals, noting that some are generated from ArmA 3, which despite its realistic military portrayal, omits women entirely. Cottingham’s film intervenes by using open-source modifications to introduce a female journalist character into the game, engaging with a genderfluid guerrilla group. This narrative seeks to challenge the game’s gender biases and explore the potential of digital simulations to represent complex realities of conflict, including gender and power dynamics. The use of a drone symbolizes both an observer’s detachment and an omnipresent witness to these dynamics, suggesting a reflection on how conflict and its representation are inseparably entwined with media.

Steven Cottingham is an artist deeply engaged with the notions of virtual realism and visualization politics. His work critically examines the influence of emerging image technologies - including bodycams, surveillance advertising, military simulation software, and AI in prisons - on social behavior. Through filmworks and video essays likeA Camera Captures Images, A Court Sets Them Free and Postphotorealism, Cottingham explores the circulation of images and their impact on law enforcement and public perception, emphasizing the constructed nature of imagery to uncover the societal and technological processes that create meaning. His practice, which incorporates computer vision, animal crypsis, and documentary methods, invites a reevaluation of life under surveillance. Cottingham’s contributions have been recognized in venues such as Wil Aballe Art Projects, The 8th Floor, and The Polygon Gallery, among others. He co-edited the periodical QOQQOON (2018-2021) and participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program (2021-2022). Based in Vancouver, Canada, his work is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council, highlighting his critical exploration of modern image-making and its societal effects. His monumental work Chain Link was featured on VRAL in 2022.

Read more about the 7th edition of the Milan Machinima Festival

ARTICLE: WHY LOOK AT ANIMALS?

VRAL is currently exhibiting Aleksandar Radan’s This water giver back no Images. To provide context to this remarkable work, we are discussing the Serbian-German artist’ oeuvre. Today we take a closer look at his 2019-2022 mockumentary series Steckbrief Natur.

In the context of game-based video art, Aleksandar Radan’s Steckbrief Natur series (2019-2022) stands as a sui generis work marrying the mechanics of machinima with the aesthetics of avant-garde documentary, or rather, mockumentary. This trio of nature “profiles” reimagines the popular genre of wildlife documentary through a lens that educates, even as it unsettles. By utilizing game engines to construct surreal dreamscapes, Radan’s triptych, consisting of Der Waldkauz (The Tawny Owl, 2019) and Steckbrief Natur - Episodes 2 & 3 (2022) probes the porous boundary between nature and techno-culture.

Initially introduced via the mighty Franco-Teutonic platform Arte.tv after the first episode was presented at a handful of film festivals in Germany, the series showcases Radan’s flair for technical innovation through avant-garde machinima. This inventive use of game assets aligns with the project’s conceptual interests in simulated and actual ecologies. In this sense, machinima’s reputation for flexibility and surreal possibility makes it an ideal vector for Radan’s exploration of environments where realism ruptures without warning.

At its core, Steckbrief Natur examines the interplay between documenting wildlife and the narratives we overlay onto other species. In Der Waldkauz, the tawny owl becomes more than flesh and feathers: it is a cipher for philosophical ruminations on existence and mortality. Through lingering shots of the raptor’s piercing eyes, Radan establishes its role as a messenger between altered states of being. This fascination with animals as vessels for cultural mythologies permeates the series.

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Aleksandar Radan

Steckbrief Natur - Der Waldkauz (The Rawny Owl)

digital video, color, sound, 9’ 41”, 2019, Germany

Steckbrief Natur - episodes 2 and 3

digital video, color, sound, 14’ 02”, Germany

This is a Patreon exclusive content. For full access consider joining our growing community.

EVENT: JORDY VEENSTRA (OCTOBER 13 - OCTOBER 26 2023, ONLINE)

Regression 4

digital video 4096 x 1716 (4k Scope), color, sound (Stereo, -14LUFS; Stereo, -23LUFS), 13’ 51” (original), 2023, The Netherlands

Created by Jordy Veenstra

Three years have passed since the unveiling of Veenstra’s Regression 3, a machinima that explored the aerial expanses of Grand Theft Auto V’s vast territory. Today, we stand at a significant juncture as Regression 4 further solidifies the significance of the series. This installment takes audiences on a highly experimental cinematic journey, focusing on the underwater realms of Los Santos and Blaine County and some of the many secrets found within.

Jordy Veenstra is a video editor, experimental filmmaker, machinima artist, and front end developer based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In his practice, Veenstra connects videogames, experimental narratives and technology through the medium of machinima and his “practice of distortion” framework, consisting of rules and values that revolve around the “distortion” of otherwise clear video-game generated images and audio, with the intent of moving away from perceiving the film as a “product from a videogame” and more as a “product of cinema” by using various values found in traditional cinema such as cinematic resolutions and aspect ratios, 24 frames per second, color grading, motion blur and grain. Veenstra’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the 2020 and 2022 editions of the Milan Machinima Festival, while Regression Trilogy has been featured on VRAL in 2020.

NEWS: THIS IS NOT A GAME AT MMF MMF MMXXII

We are delighted to announce that Arne Vogelgesang’s groundbreaking desktop documentary/performance THIS IS NOT A GAME will be featured at MMF MMXXII

Alternate Reality Games (ARG) combine reality and fiction in interesting and startling ways. Based on interactive structures, ARGs incorporate a very wide range of media, and generate a strong compulsive effect on the players who (help) shape the game by researching and exchanging information. ARGs use the individual lives of the players as their true gaming platform, thus forming active and enduring communities. What has this got to do with QAnon? Since this myth, which has also established itself as a brand, became widespread, numerous observers have pointed out how it operates on similar principles to Larping (Live Action Role Playing). In QAnon one can find elements of both LARPs and ARGs combining to create a new form. Arne Vogelgesang guides us through stories that shape reality and examines the growth of QAnon primarily in the context of the evolution of US politics.

Arne Vogelgesang is a director and founder-member of the theater label internil. He has created freelance theater work under this and other names since 2005, experimenting with a various composites of documentary material, new media and performance. Key themes in his work include political radicalization, deviant practices and the digitization of what is human. He also works as a video artist and in cultural education, publishes literary texts and presents lectures and workshops on the aesthetics of radical internet propaganda.

This program is presented by GAME OVER: CRITICA DELLA RAGIONE VIDEOLUDICA (2020)

Watch an excerpt below:

EVENT: GAME OF THE YEAR (APRIL 1 2022, IULM, MILAN)

Data e ora: Venerdì 1 aprile 2022 16:00 – 18:30

Località: Università IULM

7 Via Carlo Bo

Sala dei 146, IULM Open Space

20143 Milano

Prenotati gratuitamente su Eventbrite

L'Università IULM, nell'ambito del Milan Machinima Festival MMXXII, è orgogliosa di presentare una proiezione speciale di Game of the Year. Sarà presente allo screening il regista, Alessandro Redaelli, che risponderà alle domande del pubblico. Introduce l'evento Matteo Bittanti. Coordina il talk Riccardo Retez.

Diretto da Alessandro Redaelli (Funerapolis), Game of the Year è un documentario d'osservazione corale che racconta la vita quotidiana e le lotte di dieci persone coinvolte nell'industria del videogioco in Italia. Sviluppatori, pro-gamers, creatori di contenuti: GotY, girato nell'arco di diciotto mesi in tutto il paese, offre uno sguardo intimo su una comunità di persone che ha scelto i videogiochi per esprimersi. Dai designer indie che lavorano dalla casa della mamma agli YouTuber di successo con milioni di follower, dagli aspiranti pro-gamer che fanno due lavori ai campioni del mondo in giro per il mondo, GotY è una storia di sogni, trofei e fallimenti sullo sfondo della più grande industria dell'intrattenimento del mondo.

La proiezione speciale di Game Of The Year è un evento collaterale del Milan Machinima Festival MMXXII.

Game Of The Year (98', 2021, in italiano con i sottotitoli in inglese)

Regia: Alessandro Redaelli

Produzione: Davide Ferazza | Withstand

Produzione esecutiva: Davide Ferazza, Alessandro Giorgio | Withstand

Sceneggiatura: Alessandro Redaelli, Ruggero Melis, Daniele Fagone

DOP: Alessandro Redaelli

Montaggio: Alessandro Redaelli, Ruggero Melis, Daniele Fagone

Musica originale: Ruggero Melis

Sound Design: Lorenzo Dal Ri

Color Correction: Orash Rahnema

Cast: Simone Rosi, Alena Zueva, Alessandro Allocco, Matteo Corradini, Diego Sacchetti, Davide Isimbaldi, Simone Granata, Antonella Bovino, Mattia Attrice Michele Poggi, Giuseppe Mancini, Francesca Zacchia, Riccardo Romiti.

Con il sostegno di MiBACT e di SIAE nell'ambito del programma "per Chi Crea"

Con il sostegno di FIlm Commission Torino Piemonte Piemonte Doc Film Fund

Attenzione: Ricordiamo che in base alle misure governative per lo svolgimento degli spettacoli culturali durante la pandemia, l’accesso alla sala richiede obbligatoriamente l’uso di una prova di vaccinazione rafforzato(Super Greenpass), la cui validità verrà verificata all'ingresso. L'Università IULM richiede inoltre a tutti gli spettatori di mantenere protezioni per il volto (mascherine) coerenti con le attuali linee guida del governo all’interno della Sala, indipendentemente dallo stato di vaccinazione.

Prenotati gratuitamente su Eventbrite

When: Friday April 1 2022 16:00 – 18:30

Where Università IULM

Via Carlo Bo, 7

Sala dei 146, IULM Open Space

20143 Milan, Italy

Open to the public/free entry/registration required: Eventbrite

IULM University is proud to present a special screening of Game of the Year. The director, Alessandro Redaelli, will be present at the screening and will answer questions from the audience. The event will be introduced by Matteo Bittanti. Riccardo Retez will coordinate the talk. The special screening of Game Of The Year is a side event of the Milan Machinima Festival MMXXII.

Game of the Year (GotY) is an ensemble observational documentary chronicling the daily lives and struggles of ten people involved in the gaming industry in Italy. Developers, pro-gamers, content creators: GotY, filmed over eighteen months all over the country, offers an intimate look at a community of people who chose videogames to express themselves. From indie designers working from their mom’s house to successful YouTubers with millions of followers, from aspiring pro-gamers working two jobs to globetrotting world champions, GotY is a story of dreams, trophies, and failures set against the backdrop of the biggest entertainment industry in the world.

Game Of The Year (98', 2021, in Italian with English subtitles)

Director: Alessandro Redaelli
Production: Davide Ferazza | Withstand
Executive Producer: Davide Ferazza, Alessandro Giorgio | Withstand
Writers: Alessandro Redaelli, Ruggero Melis, Daniele Fagone
DoP: Alessandro Redaelli

Please note that according to the government’s measures for cultural performances during the pandemic, access to the hall requires the use of an enhanced vaccination test (aka Super Greenpass), the validity of which will be verified at the entrance. IULM University also requires all viewers to maintain face protection (i.e., masks) consistent with current government guidelines indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

EVENT: GAME VIDEO ESSAY

GAME VIDEO ESSAY copy.png

GAME VIDEO ESSAY

Curated by Matteo Bittanti

June 9 2019, 18:00 - 20:00

Museo Interattivo del Cinema (MIC)

Viale Fulvio Testi 121, Milano

Click here to register

We are delighted to announce that the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL is expanding beyond the annual event at IULM University. Starting this June, we will be curating a series of special events in collaboration with other festivals. For instance, we partnered with OLTRE LO SPECCHIO, a new retrospective about sci-fi and fantasy cinema curated by Stefano Locati which will take place on June 5-12 in Milan, Italy, to present a special program titled GAME VIDEO ESSAY. Featuring documentary machinima, i.e. Leonhard Muller’s Operation Hane Walk, Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis’s SWATTED, Michael Frei’s Kids, Jonas Odell’s I was a winner, and Paolo Santagostino’s Willy, 48K About a Legend, GAME VIDEO ESSAY takes place on Sunday June 9 2019 between 6-8 pm at the Interactive Museum of Cinema (MIC) in Milan, GAME VIDEO ESSAY is free and open to the public, but you must RSVP here.

Click here to read the full program.

Check the trailer below

GAME VIDEO ESSAY

Curato da Matteo Bittanti

Domenica 9 giugno 2019, 18:00 - 20:00

Museo Interattivo del Cinema (MIC)

Viale Fulvio Testi 121, Milano

Clicca qui per registrarti

Siamo lieti di annunciare che il MILANO MACHINIMA FESTIVAL si espande oltre l'evento annuale organizzato dall'Università IULM. A partire da giugno, cureremo infatti una serie di eventi speciali in collaborazione con altri festival. Il primo, in ordine di tempo è OLTRE LO SPECCHIO una nuova retrospettiva sul cinema fantascientifico e fantasy curata da Stefano Locati che si terrà dal 5 al 12 giugno a Milano, Italia. Presenteremo un programma speciale intitolato GAME VIDEO ESSAY che propone una serie di machinima documentari, nello specifico Operation Jane Walk di Leonhard Muller, SWATTED di Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis, Kids di Michael Frei, I was a winner di Jonas Odell, e Willy, 48K About a Legend di Paolo Santagostino, GAME VIDEO ESSAY si svolge domenica 9 giugno 2019 dalle 18 alle 20 al Museo Interattivo del Cinema (MIC) di Milano, GAME VIDEO ESSAY è gratuito e aperto al pubblico, ma è necessario registrarsi qui.

OLTRE LO SPECCHIO dedica un'intera giornata ai videogiochi il 9 giugno. Ecco il programma completo.

Domenica 9 giugno 2019
15:00 Tavola rotonda “Buffyzzate: Geek Girls Power”
Modera: Sara Sagrati. Intervengono: Stefania Carini, Marina Pierri, Ilaria Feole, Alice Alessandri, Francesca Acquati

15:30 @ MIC Corner: Workshop “Illustrazione digitale. Dallo sketch all'immagine finale con la tecnica mista del photobashing”, con Veronica Sinetti (Visual Designer & Wacom Ambassador), in collaborazione con Wacom

16:00 Evento “Creators: The Past” presentazione teaser del film e del romanzo, con Eleonora Fani

16:30 Tavola rotonda “Nuove frontiere del digitale – Creare mondi con VR, effetti speciali, videogiochi”
Modera: Francesca Acquati. Intervengono: Omar Rashid, Alfonso Pontillo, Luca Roncella

17:30 Presentazione del volume “Contaminations: Il fantacinema italiano degli anni ‘80” con Daniele Magni, Bloodbuster edizioni
18:00 Proiezione Game Video Essay: “Kids”, “Swatted”, “Operation Jane Walk”, “I Was a Winner”, “Willy, 48K About a Legend”, v.o. sott. it. In collaborazione con Milan Machinima Festival; Introduce: Matteo Bittanti. Ospite: Paolo Santagostino

Clicca qui per leggere il programma completo

OLTRE LO SPECCHIO - locandina DEF web.jpg