Those Who Do Not Remember the Past Are Condemned to Repeat It

Overview:

Those Who Do Not Remember The Past Are Condemned To Repeat It (2020) is an experimental documentary investigating the intersection of People’s Temple (Jonestown) with the first-person survival horror game Outlast 2 developed by Red Barrel. Departing as the digital study of the game, this project attempts to recontextualize the relationship between the mass suicide of People’s Temple in 1978 and the game’s narrative. Composed by the archival materials from FBI and machinima made with the game, this work conveys uncanny audio and visual journey in the understanding the self-destruction, the religious utopia, the binary between capitalism and socialism.