Inhabitants of Our Planet
2021

Inhabitants of Our Planet, is a nature documentary filmed in the environment of video games. It draws on the relation between organic and digital, combining the familiar format of nature documentary and the idealized world of videogames.

Relying on artist’s background as a documentary film maker, the work explores different styles and techniques of storytelling, sound design, and cinematography, employed in nature documentaries and examines the potentials of a game controller to be used as a camera.

 This documentary is part of Razavi’s recent body of work that focuses on liminal states between physical and digital experiences, between artificial and natural spaces. The work is a departure from the artist’s consideration of political mechanisms and social behavior, focusing instead on the solitary space of video gaming and the sensation of melancholy evoked by the distance between the insular gamer and nature.

 This sense of alienation is explored via the graphics of video games such as Far Cry 5, Hunter: Call of the Wild, Red Dead Redemption, Witcher 3, and Flight Simulator 2020.

A nature documentary HD, Color, sound
Duration: 12' 7''
Language: English
Working group:
Writer and Director: Bita Razavi
Camera: Saku Kämäräinen, Bita Razavi, David Kozma, Martti Anttila
Editor: Bita Razavi
Sound and Music: Saku Kämäräinen
Narrator: Joe Szymanski