Somewhere on the internet is a land where communities pretend to live out a survivalist fiction. The avatars of the directors of Knit’s Island spent 963 hours there, creating a fascinating film resulting from their encounter with these communities. The “players” reveal their fears and fantasies, in an at times unsettling blurring of the real and the virtual.

Planet In Focus is no stranger to stories with apocalyptic implications, but the brilliant Knit’s Island represents a first for the festival: a fully post-apocalyptic experience. It’s also the first time the festival has exhibited a feature “filmed” within an entirely digital landscape. Captured from 963 hours spent inside the enormous and extraordinarily detailed world of DayZ, the film’s most surprising facet may be just how much it exalts in the multiplayer survival game’s ersatz wilderness. From breathtaking night skies to virtual vegetation that sways gently in the breeze, this is a simulation so comprehensive that it’s easy to understand why a dedicated core of players continue to inhabit it over a decade after the game’s initial release. For many of those remaining, the game has long ceased to be a competitive endeavor. Instead, and particularly during the pandemic, it became a space to build community and commune with fellow players on distant continents—a world that “feels less thin than the real one,” in the words of one of one participant. How might our growing attachment to virtual spaces impact our relationship to our physical planet? That’s one question among many that the fascinating, contemplative, and deeply human Knit’s Island may invite you to ponder. – PLANET IN FOCUS

Preceeded By: IN•FLU•ENCE by Evan Luchkow, Kelly Sutherland

How do we influence the world around us? A fluid analysis tool ordinarily used in the laboratory offers new interpretations of human interaction and provides surprising insights about our place in the world. – PLANET IN FOCUS

Doors Open 30 Minutes Before Showtime.