Serious Games 2: Three Dead (2010) dir. Harun Farocki

In this second of a four part series, media artist Harun Farocki explores the interplay between modern warfare and electronic media using computer simulation and documentary footage. Originally presented as a simultaneous fourscreen gallery video installation, the separate films are available exclusively on Directors notes to Part II In Twentynine Palms, we filmed an exercise with around 300 extras playing both Afghan and Iraqi civilian populations. A few dozen Marines stood guard and went on patrol. The maneuver town lay on a piece of land that rose slightly above the desert; its buildings were assembled out of containers. The scene looked like something modeled on the reality of a computer simulation.