KNIT’S ISLAND
MQ Hof 8
MQ Arena 21
Free Entry
FR 2023 | D: Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L'Helgouac'h | Feature film | 95 min.
Director | Writer | Cinematographer: Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L'Helgouac'h
Editing: Nicolas Bancilhon
Original sound: Mathieu Farnarier
Music: Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Marc Siffert
Producers: Boris Garavini, Anna Medveczky, Joachim Herard
Production: Les Films Invisibles
Distribution: Square Eyes
Three avatars, video journalists, immerse themselves in the virtual landscape of the game "DayZ". They try to stay alive, encounter zombies, avatars who have organised themselves into brutal gangs in order to win the game, avatars who live out their preferences and twisted passions and combative loners. Finally, they come across communities that play by their own rules, grow fruit and vegetables, share the work fairly and communicate with each other to help each other.
Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier and Quentin L'helgoualc'h met at the Montpellier School of Fine Arts. In 2016, they founded a research group that scrutinises the relationship to reality in online video games. In 2017, they attempted their first documentary exploration of the game GTA V Online and made the medium-length film Marlowe Drive, which they presented as part of a retrospective exhibition on David Lynch's cinema at the Montpellier art centre, MO.CO. The film encounters avatars animated by real people and addresses questions about our relationship to the virtual through the representation of the American consumer dream suggested by the game. The film has been screened at the medium-length film festival in Brive, FIFIB Bordeaux, Studio Centquatre and the Cartier Foundation, among others. In 2018, they began writing a feature-length documentary film, which was also shot entirely in an online game. This time, each of them chose the role of an avatar in the survival simulation game DayZ. For several years, they immerse themselves in the game, within a community of players willing to participate in the project. In 2022, the film production was completed. In the meantime, they take part in seminars and conferences on digital technology, for example at the Turing Centre at ETH Zurich, at the Sorbonne and at the University of Paris 8.
Joint filmography:
Knit's Island, 2013 (documentary film)
Marlowe Drive, 2017 (short documentary film)