2010 Sundance Film Festival

Life 2.0 is a must-see for every videog ame nerd, tech-head, chat room user, reality TV watcher and social networking addict. This movie educates and explains almost everything about Second Life (SL), the virtual reality website. Users make avatars and use them to create a new reality. Life 2.0 follows avatars who are 11-year old dance club divas, SL lovers or starting a business they’ve always dreamt of but were afraid to in real life. The now-million dollar company Linden (based in San Francisco) that started SL is also the name of the currency used within the program. Linden can be converted into real cash in real life. SL is now a new market to conduct real business in the virtual reality realm. Virtual entrepreneurs from countries all over the world are logging-in to cash-in to SL. Life 2.0 also covers the common SL problem of addiction among users. Film footage displays the physically unhealthy effects SL usage can cause users over time due to sitting in the same chair for 15 hours and lack of sleep due to SL addiction. Director, producer and editor Jason Spingarn-Koff brilliantly explains SL concepts using interview footage (both in “first life” and by filming with his own avatar in Second Life) of four main characters. Their narratives display the effects (both good and bad) Second Life had on their First Life. It’s hard to believe this is Spingarn-Koff’s first feature film. –Angela H. Brown http://www.slugmag.com/festival-coverage/604/Life-20-Review.html