Joan Leandre / 2005 / Spain / 30 Minutes

An unnerving and only lightly edited amalgam of promotional videos from the military-industrial- entertainment complex, Joane Leandre’s “The War Room” functions as a surreal marketing blitz for the contemporary cross sections of gaming, simulation and mediated combat. He compares the respective efforts of the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technology, the research outfit Future Combat Systems, and Lockheed Martin, alongside Army-produced videogames like “America’s Army” and “Full Spectrum Warrior,” as well as a “reality games” company like Kuma War. In the process, Leandre forces a closer look at the political implications, and disturbing future, of armed conflict in these digital days.