God Mode

Cheat codes activated! The modern music video was born in an era when the media no longer depicted reality—it began to produce it. This rise coincided with the emergence of video games and, in particular, commercial gaming consoles. It’s no surprise, then, that game aesthetics have been part of the music video’s repertoire for decades. The saturation point came around the turn of the millennium, when MTV and Electronic Arts co-produced Video Mods, a series of animated video game music videos set to existing songs. Since then, machinima (videos and short films created using video game engines) has rapidly grown in popularity.

This screening features both 8-bit classics and modern milestones, including Phil Solomon’s short film Rehearsals for Retirement (2007), shot entirely within Grand Theft Auto.