s01e03: A love story between two cities, a video game and gentrification

In s01e03, one of films available online for the pandemic-friendly 2020 DOXA Documentary Film Festival until June 26, a love story unfolds in both physical and virtual realities, connected by gentrification.

Filmmaker Kurt Walker began the project in 2016, bringing along other artist friends he met throughout the journey. It was loosely incited by a mistake—when Walker accidentally began watching Gilmore Girls on the 16th episode. 

“I watched the whole episode thinking it was the pilot, and only realized my mistake afterwards,” Walker says. “Yet amidst the mistake, I found myself enthralled in what I perceived to be narrative ellipses and began reflecting on the possibility of making a film under similar storytelling measures.”

It reflects his time living in East Vancouver before moving to New York, where he met the film’s co-writer, co-producer and co-start Michelle Yoon. As a lifelong gamer, Walker saw a connection between the rapid gentrification of both cities with the worlds dying out online in MMMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). 

“This global force that is gentrification has of course infected the virtual too,” says Walker. “The film kind of proposes we have to fight for virtual space to ensure that we have forums that exist that are not owned by the ruling class and dictated by algorithms that aren’t in our interest.”

On the surface, the film feels like a regular ‘day in the life’ of young adults. Some viewers may even have similar shots of exploring Vancouver with their friends, stored on their phones. The anonymity of the characters both makes the film relatable and difficult to connect with, as it’s hard to keep track of who’s who, and whom the love story is unfolding for. 

The majority of the film is punctuated by background music and sounds from Final Fantasy, which may lend a sense of nostalgia to any gamers watching the film. The viewer is not privy to conversations between friends depicted in real life, but when the setting shifts to the virtual world, dialogue between players is displayed across the screen, challenging the idea that technology impedes connection. 

Beneath the soothing shots of Vancouver’s beautiful foliage and mountains, the night life and mundane snippets of the mundanity of day to day life, there is an underlying message of a more serious nature. A message that spaces that are by the people and for the people are dying out, both in the real world and in the virtual world. Throughout the film, a countdown until server shutdown serves as a reminder of the impending end to the world in which characters convene.

Walker says that while the film is political, the message was never meant to be a call to action.

“One of my primary goals was to compose a calming experience which could perhaps kind of serve as respite from the shit we’re living through. And hopefully just kind of a healthy reminder of the places and people that are most important,” he says.

Whether you come away with a feeling of nostalgia and new found appreciation for your life, or with a new perspective on the gentrification of spaces in the world, s01e03 is a film that forces you to stop and pay attention to what is going on in front of you.