THE WORLD IS MINE

Documentary film, 68 mins, 2017.

Hatsune Miku is a co-creation platform, personified by a cute and oddly seductive animated character. Fans bring her to life by creating content that she “delivers”. Her entire persona: lyrics, music and animation – is fan created, and that's her charm. Cosplaying Hatsune Miku, Ann Oren goes to Tokyo for a performative journey among these fans and explores the Miku phenomenon as an expression of collective fantasy. The habits of Miku's fans is a familiar exaggeration of our social media habits, that flood us with crowd creativity.

The film examines the performative nature of cosplaying – dressing up and playing the role of fictional characters – as a hybrid space where reality blurs into fetishistic fantasies and pop culture clichés. Embedded with fan-made lyrics and songs, Oren's journey in the fictional Miku world unfolds. Through vague erotic episodes and encounters with characters whose ontological status remains mysterious, the film brings to mind the adventures of a modern Alice in a virtual Wonderland.

“I sleep inside the display that depicts the end. And in that end, I will sing a song that only you wanted to hear.“ - Hatsune Miku

Watch the film on demand here

Festival highlights:

New Horizons International Film Festival, Wroclaw, Poland.
DokLeipzig
Locarno Festival (with The Parders).
New Orleans Film Festival.
Tartu World Film Festival, Estonia.
NewFilmmakers New York, Anthology Film Archives, new York.
Vilnius Documentary Film Festival.

*Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK) Video collection.

Awards:
B3 Moving Image Biennial, Frankfurt. Best Artwork Award (as video installation)
DOKer Moscow International Documentary Film Festival. Best IT documentary award
Epos Film Festival, Tel-Aviv Museum. Winner Israeli Films Competition