The Milan Machinima Festival is thrilled to present the full length documentary Knit’s Island as part of the Game Video Essay program. Join us for a special screening on March 14 2024 at IULM University.
Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h’s stunning documentary Knit’s Island ventures into the online game DayZ, exploring a 250 square km virtual space where players enact a survivalist fiction. Using avatars, the filmmakers interact with this community, blending 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.
Quentin L’helgoualc’h, born in Lyon in 1992, earned his Master’s in Plastic Expression from Montpellier's School of Fine Arts in 2017, followed by a post-graduate art program in 2018. His artistic practice, blending sculpture, video, and drawing, led to directing Marlowe Drive in 2017 and creating two video pieces, Between Empty Things and Cristaux Liquides, exploring digital spaces through live action and 3D animation. In 2021, he directed Les Neiges électriques at Fresnoy, National Studio of Contemporary Arts.
Ekiem Barbier, a multifaceted author, filmmaker, and musician born in Toulouse in 1993, has directed numerous short films and animations since 2012, scoring the music for them. After joining Montpellier's School of Fine Arts, he co-founded the In Extremis collective in 2015, contributing to several exhibitions. Post-graduation in 2017, Barbier directed documentaries including Anent and Marlowe Drive, with a focus on anthropology and digital experimentation. He currently resides and works in Marseille.
Guilhem Causse, from Narbonne and born in 1993, pursued his artistic education at Montpellier’s School of Fine Arts from 2012, developing works that intersect image, sound, and various artistic formats. His fascination with collapsology and natural phenomena fuels his creations of immersive, virtual installations. After earning his Master's in 2017, Causse’s work has particularly focused on exploring themes from the film Solaris through hypnotic video and sound installations.
Read more about the 7th edition of the Milan Machinima Festival
