WATCH IN BRIEF
Director Joe Hunting’s immersive film, We Met in Virtual Reality, is rendered in real time on VRChat, a virtual reality (VR) platform in which users can have full-body control over avatars.
Filmed during Covid-19 at a time when many people were physically isolated and struggling emotionally, it takes a promotional stance on the burgeoning technology, celebrating its potential to create community and seed love.
An advantage of filming a documentary about VR entirely in VR is how effectively it enables “show, don’t tell” filmmaking. Most interview participants in the film have trouble communicating in conventional ways, either because of a physical disability or due to social awkwardness. But the film does not require them to explain themselves perfectly, because the phenomena they are seeking to describe are being played out for us as they speak — the joy and emotional support that the interviewees find on the platform is touching and easy to recognise, as are their unspoken idiosyncrasies.
When VRChat user Toaster tells us that dating his partner Dust Bunny in VR made him feel “comfortable in his own skin”, the irony seems lost on him. Toaster’s avatar has cat ears, white hair and a tail. This kind of tragic anecdote is often bandied about in the context of new technologies — whether it’s kids preferring video games to playing outside or social media users glued to their phones even in the company of friends.
Yet, there is a difference between VR relationships and those two examples, because while social media users have the opportunity to talk to their friends if they put down their phones, Toaster might never have found the confidence to be in a relationship (which has extended to the real world) if not for VR.
Toaster speaks of the privilege of being able to start over and be whoever you want to be, free of expectations. The other interviewees echo these sentiments. Dust Bunny
We Met in Virtual teaches belly dancing in VR, and others facilitate lap dancing and improv classes, skills that many people wouldn’t have the confidence to attempt in real life.
A non-binary person (inhabiting an anthropomorphic dog character) speaks about their ability to be themselves in VRChat. There is more fluidity in how you represent yourself.
There is a narrative that VR interaction is “pure”, in the sense that people have agency in how they present, and can only judge one another based on personality. While this may be true, in practice it is undermined by the sexualised characters most users choose.
Although there is the occasional robot, chimpanzee in a suit or Kermit the frog, the majority of users take on the appearance of young, busty, scantily clad anime girls. A man defending his choice to embody a young female character addresses the issue briefly, but the popularity of this choice and what it tells us is never discussed properly.
Indeed, very few negative aspects of the platform are dealt with in any significance. We hear little about how VR has affected users’ real-world friendships or health.
The film’s rather obvious title is a reference to the numerous relationships that are formed in VR, but romance is not the primary focus of the movie — community is.
Probably the most practical use of VR explored in the film is the teaching of sign language. Jenny, an American Sign Language teacher with an auditory processing disorder, teaches classes of up to 60. Her community, Helping Hands, has already grown to 5,000 people.
As we become more used to the vivid animated videogame aesthetic, the novelty fades a little, so the pace of the film tapers off. The anecdotes of how VR has brought people out of a dark place also become repetitive.
As a whole though, the film has much to offer. VR is a fairly fringe culture, even though it’s already affordable. It will surely have a huge impact on our lives in the near future.
We Met in Virtual Reality Showmax.
is available on
Ana de Armas takes on the mythologised, iconic role of
Marilyn Monroe in a biographical film that’s been director
Andrew Dominik’s passion project for two decades. Based on Joyce Carol Oates’ bestselling semi-factual novel, the film loosely follows Monroe’s life from her turbulent childhood as Norma Jeane to her global fame.
On Netflix from 28 September.