workshop

NEWS: LEARN AND PRACTICE THE ART AND CRAFT OF MACHINIMA

Il Varco and Lago Film Fest are delighted to announce the third edition of the internationally acclaimed residency, Nouvelle Bug. This unique program is dedicated to the exploration and production of cinema within the realms of video games and Artificial Intelligence. Set against the picturesque backdrop of Revine Lago, this intensive week-long experience combines webinars and live lessons designed to immerse participants in the experimental frontier of Cinema. Under the guidance of the most renowned filmmakers in this niche, attendees will not only gain invaluable insights but also actively engage in the creation of avant-garde short films. Arrive with ideas and leave with a masterpiece that pushes the boundaries of traditional filmmaking.

The workshop is designed to familiarize participants with cutting-edge techniques, supporting them through the development and production phases of their short film projects. Moreover, these projects will have the opportunity to compete for awards offered by prestigious partners such as Gargantua Distribution, Gioia Film, Sayonara Film, and Lago Film Fest.

Participants will explore new aesthetics and solutions introduced by the widespread use of artificial intelligence, learning to adopt a machine-like perspective. This approach not only opens up new vistas for storytelling but also prompts a reflection on humanity’s god-like role in software creation and its implications for our future.

Through this workshop, filmmakers will embark on a journey to discover and harness the unique narrative power of digital worlds, translating them into compelling cinematic experiences. Nouvelle Bug stands as a beacon for those eager to pioneer the fusion of technology and art, offering a platform to redefine the essence of storytelling in the digital age.

TUTORS

The tutors for the workshop include:

  • Andrea Gatopoulos, a Rome-based film producer and director with a background in Modern Literature from Sapienza University, Rome. His work, which explores virtual environments, includes the project Bit-Reality and the short film Happy New Year, Jim, presented at the 54th Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes. His productions have been featured in over 100 festivals worldwide, such as Cannes, Venice, Rotterdam, and Camerimage.

  • Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis, an artist and filmmaker trained at Le Fresnoy, known for exploring the intersection of identity, technology, and the virtual world. His work Maalbeek,a deep dive into the fragmented memory of a Brussels terrorist attack victim, was selected for the 59th La Semaine de la Critique and won the 2022 César for Best Short Documentary.

  • Total Refusal Crew, a pseudo-Marxist media guerrilla group focusing on the artistic intervention within mainstream video games to expose their underlying political messages. Their films have been showcased at numerous festivals, including Berlinale and Locarno, and their research has been featured in museums and art fairs globally.

  • Gala Hernández López, an artist filmmaker and researcher applying a feminist and critical perspective to analyze discourses within virtual communities. Her film La Mécanique des fluides won the 2024 César for Best Documentary Short Film and the 2023 Experimental Work Award from la Scam (France), among other accolades. She regularly conducts workshops and lectures at prestigious institutions and festivals.

CALENDAR

March 28th 2024 Opening of the call for entries

June 15th 2024 Closing of the call for entries

June 28th 2024 Announcement of the 30 selected directors

August 18th 2024 Start of the workshop

October 1st 2024Selection of the winning project

MMF MMXXIV: GINA HARA, RESIDENT ARTIST

The Milan Machinima Festival is proud to welcome acclaimed filmmaker Gina Hara as our inaugural Artist-in-Residence.

During her upcoming festival residency in Milan, Ms. Hara will present her latest work, partecipate in the upcoming In-Game Photography conference, while also leading a 1-day workshop for students enrolled in IULM’s Master of Arts in Television, Cinema and New Media, and specifically in the course taught by Matteo Bittanti entitled Video Games, Technology and Art.

Ms. Hara’s current projects build upon her extensive background in the context of game design, digital community and experimental cinema. As Creative Director of Montreal’s Technoculture, Art and Games Research Centre, she spearheads initiatives melding artistic imagination with videogame technology.

As an interdisciplinary artist, Ms. Hara holds an MA in Intermedia and an MFA in Film Production. Her broad experience encompasses film, video, gaming, new media and design. Her 2011 fiction short Waning received a Best Canadian Short nomination at the Toronto International Film Festival. Over the past decade, Ms. Hara has pioneered new frontiers in both filmmaking and creative Minecraft game video productions.

A true visionary in machinima filmmaking, Ms. Hara is the 2022 recipient of the prestigious Critics’ Choice Award for her stunning Sidings of the Afternoon. Unfolding entirely within Minecraft’s blocky realms, the work weaves an artistic dialogue across digital and physical realms, drawing inspiration from the photography and film innovations of legendary Bauhaus figure László Moholy-Nagy. Specifically, Hara explores how the Bauhaus movement’s ideals, creative techniques and uniting of fine art with function still reverberate through contemporary imagination and virtual spaces today. The film’s nonlinear narrative emerges through the lens of Maya Deren’s avant-garde classic Meshes of the Afternoon.

 
 

Her groundbreaking work Valley (2023) was featured in Season 3 of the VRAL. Inspired by the growing prevalence of AI counseling services, Hara developed a custom chatbot named Robin to simulate conversations spanning emotional issues like anxiety, self-doubt and growth. The dialogues touch on quintessentially human questions of purpose, connection and inner peace. Setting these intimate debates within a fantastical blocky gaming realm adds layers of irony and underscores the gulf between AI logical thinking and nuances of human psychology.

 
 

Her earlier film Geek Girls (2017) was screened at IULM in 2019 as part of the university’s Gender Play series events exploring the role of women in gaming culture. This original documentary reveals the overlooked women within fan communities. In fact, although geeky pop culture has gained prominence and visibility, little attention has focused on the many women shaping these worlds.With insight and humor, Hara’s camera follows female gamers, coders and sci-fi fans. She captured their exhilaration and solidarity, but also their frequent exclusion within male-dominated nerd spheres. From professional gamers facing online harassment to women developers battling death threats, Geek Girls spotlights a complex multiplicity of female experiences. Some women find community, some encounter gatekeeping. Most see both. Through intimate interviews, the film unpacks women’s engagement with today’s geek culture. Hara grapples with her own geeky identity on camera, situating herself within the world explored.

 
 

No less remarkable is Hara’s 2015 immersive multimedia installation that transforms the popular game Minecraft into a thought-provoking experiment on the rise and fall of civilizations, MindCraft, created with Pierson Browne and Joachim Desplande.

In its original open-world form, Minecraft offers players endless freedom to create, destroy, and explore fantasy realms limited only by their imagination. Yet in Hara, Browne and Desplande’s hacked version of the game, players face a starkly different scenario. Instead of an infinite sandbox, participants find themselves confined to a small, isolated island in the sky, surrounded on all sides by a vast, empty void. With minimal living space and finite resources, players must band together to survive and build a lasting society on this isolated island, passing hard-won knowledge from one generation to the next. Each person’s gameplay decisions collectively determines whether this microcosm world thrives or perishes over time.

By subverting Minecraft’s utopian promise, MindCraft confronts participants with important questions on sustainability, cooperation, and the delicate balance between creation and destruction. As they build an uncertain future for those who come next, players may gain insight into the enduring question: What legacy do we choose to leave?

 
 

In 2016, Hara directed and produced the award-winning machinima documentary web series Your Place or Minecraft? exploring the intersection of gaming and academia.

This episodic show transports viewers to the richly modded virtual realm known as the “mLab server” on Minecraft, owned by a game research center at Montreal’s Concordia University and inhabited by real-life students and professors from the center itself. As their academic lives and virtual adventures intertwine, the series captures the compelling stories that emerge. The seven episodes follow the players as they navigate collaborative projects, interpersonal conflicts, ambition, joy and frustrations, all within Minecraft’s possibility space.

Part documentary and part social drama, Your Place or Minecraft offers a window into the bonding and clashes that arise when academics build together in a virtual sandbox. The show spotlights not only their creations but also their real-world relationships as revived through the lens of gameplay. With insightful humor and immersive filming, the webseries encapsulates the joys, politics and collaborative challenges of scholarship.

 
 

We eagerly anticipate the insights and inspiration Ms. Hara will contribute as our first Game Artist-in-Residence at the 2024 Milan Machinima Festival.

Read more about Gina Hara’s work