RECLAIM THE FRAME | Machinimas by women and queers – a cinematic counter practice in virtual worlds

In both gaming and film, FLINTA* perspectives have long been marginalised, objectified, pushed to the sidelines or even made invisible. But in the intermediate worlds of game engines, stories are flickering into existence, wanting to be told – stories of players, fighters and dreamers. The maps are drawn, the rules are set? But who says they can’t be rewritten? Machinima – the cyborg among film genres – is, if you will, a democratic instrument of filmmaking. Originating from gaming culture, the genre presents itself as an experimental, autonomous and rebellious film form that questions and breaks with traditional production methods. It is low-threshold, often DIY, hybrid and inherently collaborative. And despite this potential, the gaming worlds themselves – their designs, engines, interfaces, codes – remain predominantly male, white, cis and heteronormative.

This is where our film series RECLAIM THE FRAME comes in. The short film programme brings together five works by FLINTA* artists who use the tools of the gaming industry in an empowering way to give voice to their perspectives, their ideas, their anger. They expose consumption as a form of control, write mythical counter-narratives and question who has power over spaces, bodies and the future. The filmmakers turn away from the roles assigned to them and shift the axes of power: from consumer to creator, from object to subject, from victim to hero.

Last year’s film series OUR SCREENS offered an overview of the spectrum of films created within and inspired by game engines, showcasing the diverse creative potential of this young interface between gaming culture and filmmaking. Now we are focusing on those who were not intended to be part of these worlds: FLINTA* artists visibly traverse digital worlds, leaving behind cracks and disruptions – sowing new paths.

DON’T LEAVE ME!

US 2011, D: Angela Washko, 06:15’, OV, File

Angela Washko’s DON’T LEAVE ME! is a dense mash-up of scenes from various computer games such as Final Fantasy, Yalkyrie Profile and Metal Gear – role-playing games that Washko played regularly in her childhood. The collage addresses the stereotypical role of female avatars, who are often portrayed as helpless characters who can only be saved by the male hero. DON’T LEAVE ME! exaggerates this attribution and is an attempt to make female characters visible as complex subjects.

THIS BITCH AIN’T FREE

AU 2019, D: Georgie Roxby Smith, 05:07’, OV, File

Georgie Roxby Smith sends her avatar through the virtual, deserted consumer world of the once very popular online game Second Life, which has its own economy and in which players can build their virtual identities. The avatar runs, falls, glides and glitches through the digital ghost town, driven by the desire for a better life. In the rush and carnival of empty capitalism, patriarchal constraints and questions of sexual self-determination are revealed. An endless loop of desire.

A BRONZE ANWIL FALLS TO EARTH 

US 2023, D: Carson Lynn, 06:32’, OV, File

In A BRONZE ANWIL FALLS TO EARTH, Carson Lynn transforms the dark and violent world of the role-playing game Bloodborne into a setting of queer suffering, defiance and resistance against oppressive forces. The film is created directly within the game and while playing: in the logic of a Let’s Play, we follow a lone warrior in the setting of the gothic-looking, cursed city of Yharnam, who, framed by Greek mythology, fights the proxy battle of the LGBTQIA+ community there.

THREE MANIPULATIONS

US 2020, D: Kara Güt, 9:38’, OV, File

Who is talking to whom here? The gamer with the game engine, with a chat acquaintance, or ultimately with themselves? In THREE MANIPULATIONS, we witness how two anonymous entities attempt to interact with each other and provoke intimacy in an otherworldly, digital foreplay. Kara Güt’s encrypted video performance reveals the gap between self and others, original and copy, reality and fantasy.

THE MARTIAN WORD FOR WORLD IS MOTHER

GB 2022, D: Alice Bucknell, 40’, OV, File

In THE MARTIAN WORD FOR WORLD IS MOTHER, Alice Bucknell outlines three future scenarios for Mars, exploring political, ecological, economic, metaphysical and linguistic aspects. The project is based on a collaborative, research-based practice: Bucknell worked with anthropologists, astronomers, space lawyers and linguists and drew inspiration from Donna Haraway’s feminist theories and Ursula K. Le Guin’s science fiction. We see precise 3D world-building and the use of artificial intelligence – the script was co-authored with the language AI GPT-3. A cinematic landscape of thought in which colonial, capitalist and patriarchal patterns are questioned and Mars is understood not as a territory to be conquered, but as a living counterpart.

So 21.09 2025	Schaubühne Lindenfels
5 PM	€ 7,50 (6,50 reduced)