Directed by Shannon Sun-Higginson and funded by 1,404 users on Kickstarter, GTFO aims to unveil the abuse and misogyny women endure when playing video games online. Shannon Sun-Higginson stated that her intention with GTFO was for it to be a “… beginning of a larger conversation that will shape the future of the video game world.”
GTFO features interviews with various female video gamers, professional and amateur. Among the interviewees are two female professional StarCraft 2 players, Ailuj (Julia Childress) and flo (Florence Chee-Yun Yao).
Flo says that: “Being a girl gamer is definitely harder mentally. I think a lot of pressure, like, twice the amount of pressure is put on you just because I’m a girl.” Ailuj says: “People are definitely surprised when I say this is what I do for a living and everybody thinks it’s so cool, it’s like the dream job. I mean, you get a lot of criticism and hate”.
One of amateur female video gamers interviewed in GTFO is Jenny Haniver from Wisconsin, who received constant verbal abuse when she would reveal that she was a female or when she won a match against a male gamer. She chronicled the stream of insults from her fellow Xbox Call of Duty players at her blog Not In The Kitchen Anymore. Samples of audio can be heard below.
Another female interviewee from the Columbia University says: “Women are seen as the exception. If they’re not being denigrated, they’re being treated as unicorns. For women, witnessing the harassment of prominent women in the community is a major deterrent.”
GTFO sets a seemingly noble goal of exposing abuse but fails to deliver a sensible conclusion, or any kind of conclusion for that matter. GTFO also has extremely low production values, despite gathering $33,706 on Kickstarter. What was the budget spent on? Because it certainly wasn’t spent on production. Despite all that, the audience at the South By Southwest film festival will certainly cheer and applaud GTFO, simply because they are out of touch with reality and have no idea what being a gamer means.
GTFO is scheduled to premiere March 14 at this year’s South by Southwest film festival, held March 13-22 in Austin,Texas. Tickets prices range from $695 to $1745.
Read more: 3 Ways Women Have Ruined Video Games
