Film phase:Completed

SYNOPSIS

Games You Can’t Win explores “empathy” gaming, a new video game movement in which developers are sharing some of their most intimate or traumatic personal experiences through artful, documentary-style video games. Using a combination of intimate verité footage and video capture from the games, the short film tells the stories of three developer and the personal experiences that inspired their game.

ABOUT THE DIRECTORS

Games You Can’t Win is directed by Malika Zouhali-Worrall and David Osit.

Malika Zouhali-Worrall is a director, producer and editor of British/Moroccan origin. Her first feature Call Me Kuchi (Berlinale 2012), directed with Katherine Fairfax Wright, screened at over 200 festivals. Malika is an alumna of numerous filmmaker fellowships, including the Roger Ebert Directing Fellowship, Tribeca All Access, and Firelight Media Producer’s Lab. In 2012, Filmmaker Magazine named Malika in its annual 25 New Faces of Independent Film list.

David Osit is a documentary filmmaker and composer based in New York. His first feature documentary, Building Babel, was a recipient of ITVS Open Call funding and broadcast on PBS America Reframed in 2013. David was co-producer, composer, and sound recorder for Where Heaven Meets Hell, which broadcast on PBS Global Voices in 2013. David received his MFA in Social Documentary Film from the School of Visual Arts in New York.

NOW PLAYING

In 2016, Games You Can’t Win debuted as a New York Times Op-Doc. To watch, visit the New York Times Op-Docs website. Thank You For Playing, the feature-length documentary on which Games You Can’t Win is based, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2015.