4 Documentaries Shot Entirely Within Video Games
You've seen documentaries about video games, their creation, their rise to prominence, perhaps their ever growing impact on the public psyche. But have you ever seen one shot entirely in GTA's Los Santos ? Or one who's script is composed of World of Warcraft gamelogs ?
People have been experimenting with the “machinima” genre - the official term for films made using video game footage - for decades, but it’s currently experiencing something of a watershed moment. A documentary shot entirely using in-game footage is being released by Mubi in US theatres for the first time ever this year and the genre is garnering prominence and legitimacy as an artistic choice in the film and documentary space, with last year’s prestigious Oberhausen International Short Film Festival dedicating a whole section of its programme to machinima.
Specifically, machinima documentaries are flourishing. Lauded by critics, bearing immense creative potential and a growing audience, big players like Mubi are now prepared to back successful projects all the way. What's more, it's produced some truly fascinating films, with a distinct artistic and documentary language.
So here are 4 recent documentaries shot within video games that come highly recommended.
Grand Theft Hamlet by Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane
January 2021. Out-of-work actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen are taking solace from the third UK lockdown in Grand Theft Auto. They drive around in golf buggies, swim in the sea, play slots in the casino… but, being in the brutal world of GTA, there’s also quite a large smattering of violence as they steal cars, shoot at other players and run from the police. It is the perfect covid-free sanctuary. When they stumble across an outdoor amphitheatre within the game, they begin to wonder – how about putting on a virtual play instead? Mark and Sam are joined by Sam’s partner, filmmaker Pinny, and the stage is set for them to put on Grand Theft Auto’s first ever performance of Hamlet.
After sweeping through the festival circuit in 2024 to critical acclaim, including wins at the British Independent Film Awards and SXSW, Grand Theft Hamlet is receiving a US theatre release, making it the first ever machinima documentary to do so. The film will be available globally on Mubi from February 21st.
Upon the film’s early festival selections in 2023, co-director Sam Crane penned a very interesting article about why he believes the film world is finally ready to take machinima films seriously, which you can read here.
You can read our full review of the film written by Maddie Denton here.
Knit’s Island by Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse & Quentin L'helgoualc'h
Somewhere online, there’s a 250-square-kilometre island where people gather in communities to simulate a survivalist scenario.
The three directors of Knit’s Island spent 963 hours inside the “game”, meeting the people who take part in it. They introduce themselves to the players as a real team of documentary filmmakers, deploying direct cinema techniques, tracking shots and making interviews. The result is a truly fascinating film, with an aesthetic reminiscent somewhere between a 2.0 Peter Watkins and Tarkosvky's Stalker. Through their encounters, the boundary between virtual and IRL begins to blur. Some participants see it as an escape from their daily lives, others live out their most disturbing fantasies, making unsettling preparations for an apocalyptic future. The three filmmakers’ dangerous mission becomes an investigation into the virtualisation of our lives, and the limits and possibilities of the metaverse.
After selections and awards at IDFA, Visions du Réel and RIDM festival, Knit’s Island was released in French cinemas in 2024, making it (to our knowledge) the first machinima documentary to receive a nationwide cinema release.
You can rent the film from several platforms in France and Europe. Consult Just Watch for other countries here.
Sandbox by Lucas Azémar, Charlotte Cherici
In real life, some people want to become surgeons, others policemen, policewomen or cab drivers. Some dream of love, of good fortune, of getting pride of place within the community. The same happens within this virtual territory, on this French-speaking Californian island.
Sandbox, or Bac à Sable by its original title, is another documentary that takes place in GTA’s Los Santos, but this time in one of the game’s more bizarre online servers. Here, players are committed to acting according to the characters they’ve been attributed : shopkeeper, doctor, TV station executive… Each is playing out a role and must stick to it, or else. A flag to the admins is all it takes for them to intervene and explain to newbies (or troublemakers) that this is a role-playing server, where all must act accordingly.
A bizarre, funny and poignant endeavour into exploring our online selves that we discovered at Paris’ Cinéma du Réel. You can rent the film on Tënk.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin by Benjamin Ree
When Norwegian gamer Mats Steen died at age 25 from a degenerative muscular disease, his parents mourned what they thought was an isolated life, until they were inundated by messages from online friends around the world and discovered the deep friendships he’d created online.
They were unaware that Mats had long been leading a vibrant digital life, leaving a profound impact on a community of fellow gamers. The film takes us on a journey through the breadth of Mats Steen's adventurous online life, introducing us to Ibelin, his charismatic World of Warcraft persona. Through reconstructed animated moments from Mats' gameplay using thousands of old gamelogs, narrated entries from his blog and interviews with people who knew him as Ibelin, a picture of a remarkable young man emerges, one that underscores how community and soulful relationships can transcend the boundaries of the physical world.
Ok, you got me. This film isn’t shot entirely within a game. It’s a hybrid, blending a mixture of different images to bring Mats’ online persona back to life. But the use of animation and old gamelogs to recreate past scenes and chats that really did occur between players within World of Warcraft is particularly interesting, and reminiscent of machinima. Combined with the film’s focus on an online community within a specific game, we thought it was appropriate to include it in this list.
Shortlisted for this year’s Oscars in the Best Documentary Feature category, you can watch The Remarkable life Ibelin on Netflix.
