Category: News

The Game Arts International Assembly (GAIA) is an international think tank and network for the professional development of the game arts community aimed at curators, producers, event organizers and academics working in the field of videogame culture.

Among many other wonderful things, the 2023 edition of GAIA will consist of three days of personal talks, playful events, and round tables focusing on:

– Interactive and playful sessions generating ideas to address big issue problems;
– Bonding/integration activities designed for the participants, including visits to local game developers studios, to museums and to local cultural venues and activities.

Also, Paloma Dawkins will be part of a panel on conjuring our experiences and disciplines outside of games. Paloma is a Canadian cartoonist turned award winning virtual-reality and video-game artist. She is the founder of the XR and animation studio Apocablyss Studios (2021). Dawkins’ games are praised for being digital spaces that celebrate natural life and rhythms. She has organized pre-pandemic events for avant-garde and performative games/experiences as well as game jams in Montreal and around the world.

Congratulations to Paloma Dawkins and friends for her nomination at Berlin’s Amaze Awards for her game Songs of the Lost.

Also, big congratulations to Meredith Hambrock on her Lefty nomination for Best Debut Mystery Novel: Other People’s Secrets.

“Dealing with theft is never fun, but interdisciplinary artist and BFF holder Jessica Kantor wants to speak out about the incident that drained her BFF Friendship Bracelet from her MetaMask wallet in the hopes of saving fellow community members from the same fate.

“Kantor, who grew up in New York City and currently resides in Santa Monica, Ca., is a highly sought-after writer, director and producer of immersive augmented reality (AR) experiences. She is also the chief of staff at RMX, an early-stage Web3 startup that develops on-chain tooling for creators. BFF played an important role in Kantor’s Web3 onboarding, which happened, she says, “in a postpartum daze in early 2022.”

SEE FULL MYBFF article

Long métrage de fiction – Sortie mars 2023

Avec: Éric Bruneau, Benoît Gouin, Sylvain Marcel, Rose-Marie Perreault, Simon Landry-Désy,
Joakim Robillard, Alexandre Castonguay, Hugues Frenette, Jean Petitclerc, Christophe Levac.

Réalisation: Raymond St-Jean
Scénario: Martin Girard, Raymond St-Jean
Production: Paul Cadieux, Michel Ouellette, Martine Allard
Direction photo: Jean-Francois Lord
Musique: Gaëtan Gravel
Direction artistique: Marie Hélène Lavoie
Montage: Philippe Ralet
Costumes: Valérie Gagnon-Hamel
Maquillage: Kathryn Casault

Apocablyss Studio, a new endeavor from Paloma Dawkins (Museum of Symmetry, Songs of the Lost, Gardenium), officially launched last September 23rd at Montreal’s Anteism Books venue (Solange Knowles’ In Past Pupils and Smiles) in what was a perfect night of poetry from Ashley Opheim and Erin Songbird and of course technology from Paloma Dawkins.

Apocablyss is devoted to using new media to explore new forms of storytelling, creating animated programmed and speculative fictions that help us reconnect and reimagine ourselves. This is why the studio has a strong technological penchant for everything XR which it combines with poetry and an incredibly whimsical animation style.

We leave you with the mantra of the studio: Love is the Technology of Survival. Indeed.

“Los Angeles, 2064. In a world where humans have to live along the living dead, a new job opportunity arises: zombie catcher. Karl Neard, his sister Maggie, and his Belgian friend Freddy Merckx, all embrace this “career” in the hope of making easy money. Unfortunately, the job is not that simple: not only are the “dead” still walking, but they also have a terrible stench and an awful sense of humor. As a matter of fact, zombies just don’t care about anything, as their lives are behind them and they now have an eternity to enjoy what is left of the world. Karl and his team will quickly find this fact out as they end up surrounded by all sorts of ghoulish freaks.

We Are Zombies is a collaboration between Christal Film Productions, Full House, a label of Borsalino Productions and Maneki Films, and Humanoids’ European sister company Sparkling, in association with Kinology. Spengler is producing the film for Sparkling. The project is backed by SODEC, Telefilm Canada, Sofitvcine, La Banque Postale Image, Cofimage, refundable tax credit for Québec film and television production, Eurimages, Cofinova, and the Canadian Film and Video Production Tax Credit.

“The Zombies That Ate the World has been compared to Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, and the works of Judd Apatow. The comic was also praised by the likes of George A. Romero, Joe Dante, and Tobe Hooper.

Shot in Canada back in the spring, We Are Zombies is now in post-production and is toplined by Québécois actors Alexandre Nachi (nominated for the 2019 Best Supporting Role Iris via 1991) and Derek Johns (The Wolf and the Lion [+]), alongside Australian actress Megan Peta Hill. Written by RKSS based on Jerry Frissen and Guy Davis’ comic book series, the film was developed and produced by Gaël Nouaille, Laurent Baudens and Didar Domehri on behalf of Full House (the joint label of Borsalino Productions and Maneki Films), We Are Zombies is executively co-produced by Canada’s Christal Films. Also co-produced by Sparkling (Humanoïdes Associés’ production arm), We Are Zombies enjoys support from Eurimages, SODEC, Téléfilm Canada and the SOFICA companies Sofitvcine, Cofimage, La Banque Postale Image and Cofinova. International sales are steered by Kinology.”

RKSS previously directed the films Turbo Kid and Summer of 84.