Sundance 2024: ‘Ibelin’ is an Emotional Story About Connecting Online

As a gamer for most of my life, and a computer nerd, and a big-time web geek, I’ve always been considerably aware of how important digital connections can be. These kind of connections have been a major part of my life already for most of my life – and will continue to be. It’s rare that I ever come across a film that depicts this important truth in an earnest and accurate way that isn’t cheesy or saccharine. The documentary film Ibelin breaks out of those conventions to tell an emotional story about how meaningful online relationships are. Norwegian documentary filmmaker Benjamin Ree’s latest film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival where it won an Audience Award as well as the Directing Award in the World Cinema Documentary section. There is no one who will watch this and not be emotionally affected, with tears in their eyes, at this rousing story of a Norwegian boy who connected through World of Warcraft and made many friends online. // Continue Reading ›