I arrived today afternoon in Biarritz. A decent wheather 13°C and a warm brise from the Atlantic ocean welcomed me here. It’s a pity that my producer colleagues from Eidolon Entertainment can’t join me here (thinking of you and sending you also some pics). For me it’s a strange feeling to return to Biarritz because the past three times when I was here the intention was surfing. Or better to say: Learning how to surf(Never managed to catch a damn wave in 7 weeks paddling .-)

So it is very odd to come here for presenting L2L. And it’s a great opportunity for us to start because I have to admit that the festival is bigger than I thought it is. They celebrate this year their 25th anniversary and you can see that they try to raise the flag high. Before I even managed to set a step on the ground in Biarritz I already met a filmaker from Israel (Naomi from Black Sheep) while waiting for the transfer flight in Paris who is also presenting a film here at the festival. After we were picked up gently at the Biarritz airport we directly received our ‘badge professionnel’ from wonderful organization team member Florence Girot in the picturesque festival headquarter at the Biarritz Casino (see pic in older post, wonderful view onto the beach, I can tell you). Then the eve came and I joined the opening ceremony in the Gare du Midi ( a cinema with more than 1500 seats). It was pretty stuffed with audience. They presented the key players of the festival and the jury of the competition program. I made a picture of the stage and of the face who is head of the ‘creative documentary’ competition section named Inês de Medeiros. So now I know where I have to send my prayers to.-) After this formal opening ceremony they really opened the festival with the interesting pilot (first episode of the suspenseful french series named ‘Homes de l’ombre’, content: after the assassination of the french president, the new elections are dependant on two rivals communication agents …)

After this full impact day I saved myself from extiction and I enjoyed a wonderful french dinner in the ‘Bar du Jardin’, which ended with my favourite dessert ‘creme brulle’ which is directly responseble for the fact that I’m sitting here after midnight and writing this nonesense. I hope I’ll be able to write more posts during my stay here. At least when we receive an award I’ll do this for sure:-)

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We are happy to inform you that the program “Login 2 Life” has been selected for competition in the Creative documentaries section of the 25th FIPA, which will be held in Biarritz from January 23rd to 29th 2012.

Update: Now we received the screening times:

Screening with the jury: January the 27th – 20:15 – Auditorium (Bellevue).

Screening without the jury: January the 28th – 11:15 - Rhune 1 (Le Bellevue).

Accreditation here

On October, 21st Daniel was invited to join the German ON3 Südwild live Show in Graz, Austria. The moderators Andi Poll and Elisabeth Scharang q&a’ing our director about the Film.  The show features outtakes of the film and even a short live interview with our main doc char Gentle Heron.

We got so much awesome feedback and we’d lke to thank our community so much. The film is discussed heavily in the online media right now. We got also got the feedback that the ZDF Servers are running hot in showing Login2Life. We don’t know exact streaming counts but we are in pole position concerning “most viewed”. I think this is a good sign. So if you want to watch the whole movie: Go here ZDF Mediathek. It is available for FREE till next Sunday 23rd Oct 2011. Further interesting links:

German radio station ON3 podcast featuring Bernhard Drax (music composer and machinimator of L2L) and Daniel.

Insightful interview about the film with director Daniel Moshel on betterverse.

German L2L review of the Stuttgarter Zeitung

German Playboard Magazine interview with our director.

Menschen mit Behinderung können im Second Life all das tun, was ihnen im wirklichen Leben verwehrt bleibt. Alice Krueger hilft ihnen, sich in der virtuellen Realität zurechtzufinden.

Eingeloggt ins Leben

Menschen mit Behinderung können im Second Life all das tun, was ihnen im wirklichen Leben verwehrt bleibt. Alice Krueger hilft ihnen, sich in der virtuellen Realität zurechtzufinden.

VON MARLENE HALSEMenschen mit Behinderung können im Second Life all das tun, was ihnen im wirklichen Leben verwehrt bleibt. Alice Krueger hilft ihnen, sich in der virtuellen Realität zurechtzufinden

We just stumbled upon the fact that Das Kleine Fernsehspiel (ZDF the German broadcast Network) is promoting our film on their site. Usually they are not creating themselves trailers for the Films they are showing but in our case they made an exception because we didn’t have time yet to do so ourselves.-) Thx to Benjamin Gögge (who works for “Das kleine Fernsehspiel”)editing this nice insightful clip.  Check it out because they won’t promote it for a very long time.-)

Additionally today a German radio station interviewed our director Daniel Moshel about his characters  in L2L. If you want to listen to the Q&A conversation between Markus Köbnik and Daniel go here.

…Most importantly, the director Daniel Moshel refrained from portraying his subjects as freaks or clowns for the audience to laugh at.  Instead, he unpacks their motivations and desires in a way that pulls you into their story.  Watching a disabled man fighting in World of Warcraft with just his mouth, you can’t help but be thrilled when he bests his opponent and then taunts the other player about how he was “pwned by a cripple.”  Clearly Moshel has an affection for his subjects that comes through as he lets them tell their stories. …

What follows is a review from Tobias Heidemann for the gaming related site giga.de:

… „LOGIN2LIFE“ verfolgt einen erfrischend unvoreingenommen Ansatz. Anders als vergleichbare Dokumentionen geht es Moshel nicht so sehr um die Konflikte, Widersprüche oder Grenzen zwischen Realität und virtueller Realität – „Login 2 Life“ stellt diese zwei Existenzen hingegen als eine einzige dar. Am Beispiel der portraitierten Menschen gelingt es Moshel die Mauer, die in manchen Köpfen noch immer existiert, einzureißen und das Leben in der digitalen Welt als ein sehr reales Geflecht aus Selbstverwirklichung, Phantasie und Wirtschaft darzustellen. …

Looking forward to post some more reviews here.-)

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Much to our surprise, after showcasing a few minutes of the film, the questions of the journalists present on location quickly turned to very general remarks about virtual worlds and living. For some reason or other, they seemed more interested in the topics of the 2007 hype, than in those presented by the film. Addiction was mentioned as well as sensory comparisons between real and virtual life. Quickly a discussion seemed to flare up between those taking part in the real world and those in virtuality. Our podium could do little to answer such general issues but laboured to provide the visting press with all information they would want to know.

To us it felt strange being drawn into a discussion which is either too general or too specific in regards to our film, yet we are happy that the overall impression of Login 2 Life seemed to have been a positive one. We’re looking forward to October 17th when the film will go on air for the first time in German Television. Until then, we’ll keep you posted…

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“100%Leben“, die Dokumentarfilmreihe des Kleinen Fernsehspiels, präsentiert fünf packende, eindringliche Filme von jungen Filmemachern,…Den Auftakt bildet am 17. Oktober 2011 “Login 2 Life”. Daniel Moshel begleitet Menschen, denen die virtuelle Welt zur alternativen Heimat geworden ist. Sie erwirtschaften darin ihren Lebensunterhalt, verwirklichen sich selbst oder erleben einfach das, was ihnen in der Realität aufgrund von Krankheit oder Behinderung verwehrt ist: sich bewegen, reisen, Freundschaften pflegen, Sex. Eine der Hauptfiguren ist die an Multipler Sklerose erkrankte Alice B. Krueger aus Denver/Colorado. Als Gründerin der gemeinnützigen Organisation “Virtual Ability” hilft sie anderen gehandicapten Menschen auf neuartige Weise über das Internet.

Wir möchten Ihnen nicht nur die Dokumentarfilmreihe “100%Leben” vorstellen, sondern Ihnen auch die einmalige Möglichkeit geben, sich mit Alice B. Krueger als “Gentle Heron” in einem virtuellen Raum (Second Life) auszutauschen.

Wir laden Sie herzlich ein zu einem
“halbvirtuellen” Pressegespräch
Montag, 12. September 2011, 18.00 Uhr
PresseClub München (Eingang über “Bistro am Marienplatz”)
Marienplatz 22, 80331 München

Ihre Gesprächspartner, auch für Einzelinterviews, sind Daniel Moshel, Alice B. Krueger, die Leiterin der ZDF-Redaktion Das kleine Fernsehspiel, Claudia Tronnier, sowie Redakteur Lucas Schmidt.

Bitte teilen Sie uns bis spätestens Donnerstag, 8. September 2011, mit, ob Sie den Termin wahrnehmen, …

So if you are press and want to join us in Munich, feel free to go here and register (at latest tomorrow on Thursday the 8th of September). If you want to paticipate next Monday in SL (Gentle Heron will be one of the speakers at 9am SLT) then go and visit the  following SLURL.  See u soon hopefully. BTW: Check out our new FB page here.