Read Michael Salu's director's note-cum-essay on the themes, inspirations, critiques and research that went into his recent film D.A.O.C.
"It was the omissions from these documents which lay stark and loud. Those huddling, unseen, in the claustrophobic blood-stained alleyways between bureaucratic declarations. Those who lay beyond the photographic record’s frame of material conquest and financialisation—where the all-conquering imperialist stood proudly in unsullied, dazzling whites before the mine, an entryway to the ever-giving prize of earth. I was interested in voices absent from the ledgers, except when these voices were noted as a resource, as hardware even. Silent participants and observers unable to give testimony from the background of a singular imagination of conquest and immortality."
From imperial archives to Franz Fanon's critique of the psychological legacies of colonialism, to modern fantasies in Grand Theft Auto and the capitalist origins of first-person shooter games. This text gets into the nitty-gritty of why make such an attritional, and intensely durational work using the game-engine software, Unity.
You can read the full essay, here.
You can read the full essay, here.
