EVENT: SF Indiefest (San Francisco, February 3-17)
The 2011 edition of SF Indiefest, a cinematic retrospective that celebrates the best independent productions from all over the world, features a series of fabulous docs and movies that readers of GameScenes cannot miss. Among the others:
[All films are at the Roxie Cinema]
Second Bodies, Sandra Danilovic, 2010, 46 min, Canada
Gold Farmers, Ge Jin, 2010, 38 min, US/China
"This double-featurette program highlights hot-button issues of the online game industry. In Gold Farmers we meet the players hired to win virtual currency in games like World Of Warcraft in order to sell it to western gamers. One gold farmer feels lucky to work 10-hour days and send money to his family; another wants to make friends with gamers he meets online, but he's shunned for being a professional." (Indiefest)
=> Gold Farmers & Second Bodies @ SF Indiefest
RU There
David Verbeek, 2010, Taiwan/France/Netherlands, 90 min
"The fundamental nature of human intimacy is examined in this groundbreaking observation of a life lived primarily in the virtual world. A withdrawn professional gamer, in Taiwan for a videogame tournament, befriends a prostitute after shoulder pain prevents him from competing. Though their relationship remains platonic in real life, they form a romantic bond through their online rendezvous in the game Second Life." (Indiefest)
The Thrashmaster
Mathieu Weschler, 2010, 88 minutes, France
"Machinima are films made using video game engines, and The Trashmaster is one of the finest and most ambitious in its class. Created entirely with images from the video game Grand Theft Auto IV, this cross between Dirty Harry, Taxi Driver and Seven follows a NYC garbage collector-turned-vigilante as he finds himself on the trail of a particularly twisted serial killer. This first feature by Mathieu Weschler is the fruit of hours and hours of solitary labour, proving once again that imagination, not money, is what counts." (Indiefest)