Online Screening Program - Basma Al-Sharif: Far from Palestine, Close to Images
The DMZ International Documentary Film Festival is committed to expanding accessibility and reaching audiences wherever they are. Continuing this mission, we are proud to present our online screening programs, available nationwide during the festival period on our dedicated platform, docuVoDA.
This Is Not Virtual
This year, our online offerings expand with a special retrospective that journeys into the unique world of machinima. From its origins in the recorded gameplay footage of the 1990s to its flourishing alongside online video platforms, machinima has become a vital and ever-expanding form of cinematic expression.
The films in this retrospective reveal how machinima has become a powerful tool for digital ethnography, capturing the unique social textures of virtual worlds and exploring the politics of identity within them. Whether documenting the lives of a virtual world’s inhabitants or using a game engine to confront real-world histories of discrimination and violence, these works embody a uniquely 21st-century cinematic sensibility. They radically challenge our ideas of the virtual and the real, the factual and the fictional, all while reaffirming the power of art to imagine—and build—new modes of being.
