‘State of Play’ Documentary Live Airing
State of Play, a feature documentary about the competitive world of South Korean professional gamers, will have its North American festival premiere at the Portland Film Festival on August 27, 2014.
To reach the global gaming community, State of Play will be simultaneously screened live on Twitch, the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers with 55 million viewers per month. The first online screening will coincide with the first screening at the Portland Film Festival. It will commence at 5pm PDT (UTC-07:00) and will loop continuously for 24 hours via the channel twitch.tv/stateofplaydoc.
State of Play, directed by Belgian filmmaker Steven Dhoedt, offers a unique view into the otherwise closed South Korean esports industry, where video games not only have become a popular spectator sport, but also a multi-million dollar business. By spending over three years with several professional and amateur gamers, the film depicts the harsh journey of success and failure in the fast developing world of competitive gaming.
The documentary is the first independent Belgian-South Korean co-production between Brussels based production company Visualantics and Minch&Films, an indie production house with a head office in Seoul. The film was commissioned by European broadcasters RTBF (Belgium), CANVAS (Belgium), SVT (Sweden), and NRK (Norway), and was made possible with the support of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), MEDIA+, the Seoul Film Commission, and the Korean Communication Commission.
Get two free movies if you purchase State of Play via stateofplaydoc.com: Rise of the King, the story of IM Mvp; and Inside the Metaverse, on virtual worlds and deleted scenes. Get $5 off with the special coupon TWITCHDELUXE for 24 hours only!
About the author/director Steven Dhoedt (°1980, Gent) studied film at the RITS Film Academy in Brussels and graduated as a Master in Audiovisual Arts. After his studies he settled in Hong Kong for several years where he gained experience as a freelancer producer and director in the local video- and TV commercial industry. In 2003 he founded the Belgian based production company VISUALANTICS. He made his documentary debut in 2009 with ‘INSIDE THE METAVERSE’, a journey through online virtual worlds. His most recent film is STATE OF PLAY, a creative documentary where he follows the career of several South-Korean professional gamers. He is currently in production on REACH FOR SKY, a feature documentary also set in South-Korea, which focuses on the highly competitive Korean education system.
About Portland Film Festival The Portland Film Festival is the biggest and most outgoing summer movie smorgasbord in the Northwest. This year, we have over 154 hours of films, workshops, networking opportunities, parties, talks, classes, behind-the-scene tours and more. Plus three nights of free movies and live music in Wallace Park, Waterfront Park with tasty drinks, specialty food, and all kinds of bands.
About Twitch Twitch is the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers where more than 55 million gather every month to broadcast, watch and talk about video games. Twitch’s video platform is the backbone of both live and on-demand distribution for the entire video game ecosystem. This includes game developers, publishers, media outlets, events, user generated content, and the entire esports scene. In February 2014, Wall Street Journal ranked Twitch as the 4th largest website in terms of peak internet traffic in the U.S. fortifying the brand as an entertainment industry leader and the epicenter of social video for gamers. For more information, visit: www.twitch.tv
About VISUALANTICS Founded in 2003, the Brussels based production company VISUALANTICS specializes in independent projects for an international market and is involved in the field of new media, fiction and creative documentary. The company enjoys a growing reputation with contemporary documentaries; The Sound of Belgium (about Belgium’s rich history with electronic music), Inside the Metaverse (on virtual worlds), the Brussels Business (on lobbying in Brussels) and with the award winning shorts such as ‘The Extraordinary Life Of Rocky.
Today, VISUALANTICS has had collaborations with national and inter-national broadcasting companies such as VRT, RTBF, LICHTPUNT, ARTE, ZDF, NRK, SVT, etc. and government funding institutions such as the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), Le Centre du Cinéma (CFWB), Le Centre de l’Audiovisuel à Bruxelles (CBA) and the European MEDIA+ program.
VISUALANTICS is a founding member of FlandersDoc, the Belgian-Flemish association of documentary producers.