New Second Life Documentary, The Cat, the Reverend and the Slave, Tracks the Search for Virtual Transcendence

The Cat, the Reverend and the Slave is a new documentary on Second Life from the French filmmaking team Alain Della Negra and Kaori Kinoshita, and to judge by the trailer and my in-person chats with them, it's about the search for transcendence in SL, people yearning for something deeper than the life they have in the material world (even if that search sometimes takes directions that are dark and strange to most.) As the title suggests, the movie centers on profiles of three Second Life users: a minister who creates a virtual church, a furry, and someone in an avatar-driven S/M relationship. Watch:

Much of the movie was shot in 2007, which is when I met Alain and Kaori, and did some on-camera interviews with them -- before and after they made a trip to Burning Man, which you'll see in the trailer. (I'm briefly in the movie, depicted on my cellphone, likely talking about flying penises.) They also shot me interviewing Philip Rosedale, and while that footage didn't make the final cut, Alain and Kaori tell me that that 40 minute segment should be in the DVD, which comes out next year. They're lovely, charming folks and extremely talented, humane filmmakers, so I can't wait to see the whole thing.

If you can be in Southern California next month, you can see the movie and meet Alain and Kaori at the Anaheim Film Festival. If you're in France, the movie is playing in theaters now -- here's a list of the screening locations/dates.

Another clip from The Cat, the Reverend and the Slave after the break:

Comments

[Renmiri]

Looks interesting. How can we see it here in US ?

[Psion]

Just out of curiosity, you mentioned Alain Della Negra and Kaori Kinoshita are very "humane filmmakers". What does that mean, exactly? What's an inhumane filmmaker?

[Hamlet Au]

My sense of Alain and Kaori is their interest is in trying to understand and be respectful of their subjects. As opposed to, say, approaching them with mockery or condescension.

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

I'm most curious to see it. I don't think the filmmakers set out to mock SL users. They seem to want to explore the impetus for why folks spend a lot of time in-world. It would be kinda blah to, say, interview IBM folks about why they hold in-world meetings, after all.

At the same time, I hope that no granting agencies who might fund virtual-worlds research see the film.

Screening Committee Chair: "Oh, that's the game where the guy wears the cat ears and tail, right?"

Academic: /facepalm "Never mind."

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

PS to Psion:

Q: "What's an inhumane filmmaker?"

A: Google "Werner Herzog"

From "Grizzly Man," there's this bit, "I believe the common character of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility, and murder."

He's one of my favorite directors, but dont' expect any warm and fuzzy from Werner.

[Hamlet Au]

I fucking love Herzog. He's got a grim view of life, but he's very humane with his subject in *Grizzly Man*, Timothy Treadwell, who does very incomprehensible, irresponsible things, but Herzog always treats him with respect and even admiration.

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

Tim Treadwell, that big goof. We all loved him. Especially that bear who had him for lunch.

Agreed, Herzog does show sympathy toward many of his subjects who knew Treadwell. I think we could have a long, fascinating debate about how he regards his protagonist.

It's interesting and perhaps a violation of documentary expectations--one I'll look for in our SL film--to have the film maker come into a narrative, as Herzog does in "Grizzly Man." Herzog does this when he says, "I believe that there is no secret world of the bears," thus undercutting Treadwell's reason for living and dying as he did.

I'd still argue, whatever sympathies Herzog shows to Treadwell's friends, that the director's view of nature--wild nature and human nature--is a inhumane one, in the Deist's sense of an indifferent universe that does not respond to wishes or magical thinking.

Okay, I'd best stop before this becomes "Herzog World Notes" and we riff on "Aguire, The Wrath of God."

[Hamlet Au]

"All I see in the bear is boredom... AND HUNGER."

[Psion]

Ah! Thank you Hamlet, I understand now. I suppose it would have been all too easy to paint his subjects in an unflattering light. Being a Star Trek fan, I'm a bit used to seeing "my kind" not only the subject of derision, but also far too willing to put ourselves into cringe-worthy situations.

Ignatius, would you accept the argument that Herzog isn't inhumane, but more accurately antihumanist?

[melponeme_k]

I'm sure 95% of people in SL are extremely boring compared to the people in these docuflicks.

Where do they find these people? Especially when the majority just like to shop, chat with friends, set up a little house then log off.

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

@Psion, who said

"would you accept the argument that Herzog isn't inhumane, but more accurately antihumanist?"

That's a good word for him. "Humanism" can mean lots of things, but as a faculty member in the Humanities, I see lots of anthropocentric thinking and the dogma that reason and calm discourse can keep "chaos, hostility, and murder" at bay. This is not the atheistic "Humanism" so often derided by religious folks. Many of the academic Humanists I know, for instance, are devoted Catholics from Jesuit traditions.

These same folks didn't read enough Stephen Crane or watch enough Herzog.

I'm not suggesting that Herzog does not prefer reason and calm discourse. He's not a cruel man, mocking his subjects even if he disagrees with Treadwell.

But I'm of the same mind as him, thinking that the marks of civilized life don't stand a chance as soon as otherwise amenable people get hungry or angry enough or if we collectively let their guard down long enough. Then the brutes try to take over. This has been my essential difficulty with Pacifism.

And Humanism has no place at all when confronted by a Grizzly Bear :)

Hamlet, you need to spin off a New World Cafe Blog so we armchair philosophers can spin our wool.

[Hamlet Au]

Hmm, that's a good idea!

[Joltfreek Skall]

I am in this Film I am joltfreek Skall They spelled my name wrong in the movie. The film makers where great people very nice friendly and over all great people. It was a blast to spend a week with them as i showed them my home and where i grew up and etc. I am in SL and my name is Joltfreek Skall.

[belstaff chaquetas]

I "like" you on Facebook. Would love these for my oldest boy!