Civilisation is a sewer. The work follows virtual currency and digital junk to examine how production and consumption in virtual worlds interact with material reality. The garbage that decorates video games, the excrement of a city simulation, crypto mining farms, and geopolitical speeches are folded into the same system of value and waste.
The virtual is not outside the real; it is a potential that is repeatedly realized in the actual. As objects vanish from game worlds and currencies claim decentralization while depending on centralized infrastructures, the film tracks an alternative reality generated from the pressure placed on the space of reality itself.
Process notes
The director’s note traces the work to research on Western video games’ representations of China, especially Battlefield 4. Encountered in late 2020, amid the pandemic, sanctions and the US election cycle, the game became a way to let virtual space and political reality contaminate one another. The production process involved cracking and recycling 3D models from the game, with particular attention to digital garbage as a model of consumption, residue and virtual realism. The official information sheet anchors the geopolitical layer through the Trump voice, sourced from an unannounced White House video statement made on December 2, 2020.
Festivals / screenings
- 2024, Falling Tree Film Festival, London, United Kingdom
- 2024, Kalakari Film Festival, Dewas, India
- 2024, Vienna Shorts, Vienna, Austria — Reselected
- 2023, Grand OFF Festival, Warsaw, Poland
- 2023, Digerati Emergent Media Festival, Denver, United States of America — 1st place award in the category RESONANT DWELLINGS
- 2023, KUANDU Film Festival, Taipei, Taiwan
- 2023, 50th Athens International Film + Video Festival, Athens, United States of America
- 2023, International Animated Film Festival Animocje, Bydgoszcz, Poland
- 2022, World Film Festival of Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand
- 2022, CutOut Fest International Animation and Digital Art Festival, Querétaro, Mexico — Special Mention for Experimental Short Film
- 2022, The 4th Topu International Animation Week, Dongbuzhou, China
- 2022, Le Festival – Instants Vidéo numériques et poétiques, Marseille, France
- 2022, South Taiwan Film Festival, Tainan, Taiwan
- 2022, LAGOS INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ANIMATION, LIFANIMA, Lagos, Nigeria
- 2022, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
- 2022, Vancouver International Film Festival, Vancouver, Canada
- 2022, OVER THE REAL Festival Internazionale di Videoarte, Lucca, Italy
- 2022, Pacific Meridian International Film Festival of Asian Pacific Countries, Vladivostok, Russia
- 2022, BLON Animation and Games Festival, Klaipėda, Lithuania
- 2022, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria
- 2022, Seoul International ALT Cinema & Media Festival, Seoul, South Korea
- 2022, Festival international du film d’animation d’Annecy, Annecy, France
- 2022, Vienna Shorts, Vienna, Austria
- 2022, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Oberhausen, Germany
- 2022, Videoformes 2022, Clermont-Ferrand, France — Prix EX-ÆQUO DU DÉPARTEMENT
- 2022, Cinéma du réel, Paris, France
- 2021, Beijing International Short Film Festival, Beijing, China
Exhibitions
- 2026, Demain, demain, La Station, Nice, France
- 2025, Electrified Kids - The 8th Intermedia Art Festival, TANK Shanghai, Shanghai, China
- 2023, Powerhouse Late x Club 4A: Future No Future, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, Australia
- 2022, Order Copied: Change the Reference Frame, Magician Space, Beijing, China
- 2022, Views at the Edge, End of the Screen, Gallery Weekend Beijing, Beijing, China
- 2022, VIDEOFORMES @ imagespassages, Imagespassages, Annecy, France
Links / references
- Annecy official archive: Very, Very, Tremendously Official Annecy 2022 selection archive record.
- BnF notice bibliographique: Very, very, tremendously Bibliothèque nationale de France catalogue record for the film.
- Letterboxd public film record: Very, Very, Tremendously Public film database record that keeps the title, year and director searchable.
- Guangli Liu official page: Very, Very, Tremendously Artist official page with trailer, stills, process notes, screening records and screening-room access.