A documentary told entirely through animated avatars can be a hard sell, but instead of playing into the expected jokes, director Joe Hunting takes this digital environment extremely seriously, and that makes all the difference. He doesn’t downplay how absurd it is to see what are essentially 3D characters going on dates and having bellydance classes together, and yet Hunting still takes time to emphasize how freeing this virtual existence is for all involved. It’s disappointing that the film never addresses the many real concerns people have about purely online relationships (deception, exploitation, and abuse, among others), but as a positive and perhaps overly romanticized view of this new, 21st-century social space, the documentary remains fresh and vital.
"Hunting's feature-length debut manages to quickly shed the trappings of its tech-heavy format as the real, human stories punch through."
— Ed Gibbs
"Hunting repeatedly surprises with the lyrical beauty he elicits from this brightly colored microcosm."
— Carlos Aguilar
Filmed entirely inside the world of virtual reality (VR), this immersive and revealing documentary roots itself in several unique communities within VR Chat, a burgeoning virtual reality platform. Through observational scenes captured in real-time, in true documentary style, the film reveals the growing power and intimacy of several relationships formed in the virtual world, many of which began during the COVID-19 lockdown, while so many in the physical world were facing intense isolation.
Shot entirely within the online platform VRChat, players are interviewed on the relationships and communities they've formed online, especially during the pandemic.
The magic of We Met in Virtual Reality doesn't really hit until you get to scenes in which two avatars display sincere affection towards each other. You don't expect to care as much as you do, but then again the isolation of the pandemic really just might have changed how these kinds of interactions can come across. Given the context of an uncertain future and the profound loneliness everyone seemed to have been feeling at the time, any sort of companionship—even those taking place entirely in ones and zeroes—feels like a welcome hug.
Filed under: movies that would instantly kill a small Victorian child.
Sundance
1 nomination
