Robert and Trude Steen were astonished that their 25-year-old son Mats had another life after he passed away from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Despite Mats, who used a wheelchair and had few in-person social outings, appearing lonely amidst playing World of Warcraft for about 15,000 hours in his last ten years, his parents soon discovered he was popular in this virtual world. Gamers knew him for his avatar, Lord Ibelin Redmoore, and devotedly read his blog Musings of Life. These events inspired filmmaker Benjamin Ree (The Painter and the Thief), a Steens family friend who read Mats’ journey on the BBC, to visualize this story.
Ibelin thoroughly traces Mats’ existence with talking-head interviews, family home footage, original animations of Warcraft characters, a narrator reading his posts, his handwritten video game dialogue, and a mix of animation movements and character descriptions. These techniques allow Ree to symphonically center the subject without relegating family and peers to representatives.
Ibelin thoroughly traces Mats’ existence with talking-head interviews, family home footage, original animations of Warcraft characters, a narrator reading his posts, his handwritten video game dialogue, and a mix of animation movements and character descriptions. These techniques allow Ree to symphonically center the subject without relegating family and peers to representatives.
- 1/20/2024
- by Edward Frumkin
- The Film Stage
Between fascist propaganda, harassment campaigns, AI-generated Google results, and the collapse of digital publishing, it’s hard not to think of the internet as a wasteland. “Ibelin,” however, is a defining film about the positive side of the modern web experience, and connections forged online.
Directed by “The Painter and the Thief” helmer Benjamin Ree, the documentary marries form with function in stunning fashion, bringing to life the sprawling digital identity of its subject Mats Steen — a quadriplegic gamer who died at 25 from a degenerative disease — via his personal blog and his World of Warcraft campaigns. The resultant film is a moving, multifaceted masterwork that doubles as a cinematic epitaph to a vibrant (if secretive) young man.
Using thoughtfully engineered animation, “Ibelin” explores not only Mats’ complications, but a lifetime of personal experiences that remained a secret from his parents until they began grieving him. Though they believed him to be isolated and lonely,...
Directed by “The Painter and the Thief” helmer Benjamin Ree, the documentary marries form with function in stunning fashion, bringing to life the sprawling digital identity of its subject Mats Steen — a quadriplegic gamer who died at 25 from a degenerative disease — via his personal blog and his World of Warcraft campaigns. The resultant film is a moving, multifaceted masterwork that doubles as a cinematic epitaph to a vibrant (if secretive) young man.
Using thoughtfully engineered animation, “Ibelin” explores not only Mats’ complications, but a lifetime of personal experiences that remained a secret from his parents until they began grieving him. Though they believed him to be isolated and lonely,...
- 1/20/2024
- by Siddhant Adlakha
- Variety Film + TV
Benjamin Ree’s Ibelin tells a sad and inspiring story on a level that can be summarized in two sentences.
That doesn’t make it less sad or less inspiring, and it doesn’t make its core message any less important. But if you’re already aware that the virtual spaces created by networked gaming are, indeed, valid and even valuable ways of forging social relationships, there isn’t much additional insight.
Are there still people who think that networked games are just games, and that a guild of pixelated players has no ties in real life? Of course. It’s just hard to imagine that audience wanting a documentary to teach them — much less at Sundance, where similar topics are bog standard, and especially not with the excessively straightforward, if sometimes slightly (but not hugely) visually innovative, approach that Ree takes to Mats Steen’s story.
The two sentences:...
That doesn’t make it less sad or less inspiring, and it doesn’t make its core message any less important. But if you’re already aware that the virtual spaces created by networked gaming are, indeed, valid and even valuable ways of forging social relationships, there isn’t much additional insight.
Are there still people who think that networked games are just games, and that a guild of pixelated players has no ties in real life? Of course. It’s just hard to imagine that audience wanting a documentary to teach them — much less at Sundance, where similar topics are bog standard, and especially not with the excessively straightforward, if sometimes slightly (but not hugely) visually innovative, approach that Ree takes to Mats Steen’s story.
The two sentences:...
- 1/20/2024
- by Daniel Fienberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Netflix has acquired Benjamin Ree’s Sundance World Cinema Documentary Competition selection Ibelin, the streamer confirmed on Friday morning.
‘Ibelin’: Sundance Review
The Norwegian documentary premiered on Thursday opening day and tells the story of Mats Steen, a gamer who died of a degenerative muscular disease at age 25.
His parents believed Mats led a solitary life without love and friendships, however after he died they learned he in fact led a rich digital life through the game World Of Warcraft which left a profound impact on a community of fellow gamers.
Ree (The Painter And The Thief) and his...
‘Ibelin’: Sundance Review
The Norwegian documentary premiered on Thursday opening day and tells the story of Mats Steen, a gamer who died of a degenerative muscular disease at age 25.
His parents believed Mats led a solitary life without love and friendships, however after he died they learned he in fact led a rich digital life through the game World Of Warcraft which left a profound impact on a community of fellow gamers.
Ree (The Painter And The Thief) and his...
- 1/19/2024
- ScreenDaily
Just a day into the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Netflix has swooped on Ibelin, a new feature doc from Norwegian filmmaker Benjamin Ree (The Painter and the Thief), in the first acquisition of the festival.
World premiering in Park City on Thursday afternoon, the title playing in World Cinema Documentary Competition tells the story of Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer who died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated existence, later discovering that Mats had long been leading a vibrant digital life that left a profound impact on a community of fellow gamers.
The film takes us on a journey through the breadth of Steen’s adventurous online life, introducing us to Ibelin, his charismatic World of Warcraft persona. Through reconstructed animated moments from his gameplay, narrated entries from his blog and interviews with people who knew him as Ibelin,...
World premiering in Park City on Thursday afternoon, the title playing in World Cinema Documentary Competition tells the story of Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer who died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated existence, later discovering that Mats had long been leading a vibrant digital life that left a profound impact on a community of fellow gamers.
The film takes us on a journey through the breadth of Steen’s adventurous online life, introducing us to Ibelin, his charismatic World of Warcraft persona. Through reconstructed animated moments from his gameplay, narrated entries from his blog and interviews with people who knew him as Ibelin,...
- 1/19/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
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