In a landmark moment for interactive art and storytelling, Land Invaders will make its world premiere as an Official Selection of Berlin International Film Festival 2026, within the boundary-pushing Berlinale Forum Expanded. The inclusion marks the first time a video game has ever been presented within this prestigious exhibition space, signaling a powerful shift in how digital play, political history, and contemporary art intersect.
Created by Anishinaabe Algonquin artist Cass Gardiner and designer Juan Mateo Menendez, the project challenges conventional definitions of cinema and screen culture. By transforming the nostalgic language of retro arcade games into a tool for historical reckoning, Land Invaders offers audiences not just something to watch, but something to actively engage with.
Reclaiming History Through Retro Gameplay
At first glance, Land Invaders resembles the familiar 8-bit arcade classics of the early video game era. Pixelated ships descend across the screen, reflexes are tested, and the visual rhythm feels instantly recognizable. But beneath its nostalgic surface lies a deeply political reimagining of colonial history.
The game proposes an alternate reality in which the infamous ships of Christopher Columbus never reach Turtle Island. Instead, players confront these invading forces head-on, symbolically resisting colonization through gameplay itself. What begins as a playful homage to vintage gaming quickly transforms into a cathartic experience of resistance, memory, and healing.
By using interactive mechanics rather than traditional narrative structure, Land Invaders invites participants to process intergenerational trauma in an embodied way. Each movement, reaction, and victory becomes part of a larger act of reclaiming history and restoring agency.
A Personal and Collective Act of Reprogramming
For Gardiner, Land Invaders is both deeply personal and broadly political. The project draws on Indigenous perspectives of history, resilience, and futurism, using play as a means to disrupt inherited colonial narratives. Rather than portraying trauma passively, the game empowers players to confront it directly.
Through its structure, Land Invaders explores how interactive media can subtly “reprogram” patterns of thought. Reflex-based gameplay becomes a metaphor for instinctive resistance, while repeated engagement encourages reflection on historical harm and the possibility of alternative futures.
This blending of emotional processing and digital mechanics places the project within a growing movement of Indigenous futurism, where technology is reclaimed as a space for cultural storytelling, healing, and imagination.
BIRD X BIRD and Indigenous-Led Innovation
The game was developed by BIRD X BIRD, an Indigenous-led creative studio founded by Gardiner and Menendez. The studio focuses on experimental projects that span film, design, gaming, and emerging technologies, often blurring the lines between art installation and interactive experience.
Their work represents a new wave of creators using digital platforms not merely for entertainment, but as cultural and political tools. Through innovation grounded in lived experience, BIRD X BIRD is helping redefine what immersive storytelling can look like when driven by Indigenous voices.
A Perfect Home at Berlinale Forum Expanded
Berlinale Forum Expanded has long been recognized for pushing the boundaries of traditional cinema by showcasing installation art, immersive media, experimental film, and cross-disciplinary projects. Its role within the Berlin International Film Festival is to challenge how stories are told and how audiences engage with screens.
Land Invaders fits naturally within this tradition of innovation. By occupying the space between video game, political art, and historical reimagining, it expands the definition of screen culture itself. Its inclusion signals growing recognition that interactive experiences are not separate from cinema, but part of its evolving future.
The exhibition will be presented as part of Forum Expanded’s 2026 program titled “Unauthorized Versions,” hosted at Betonhalle at Silent Green, with free public admission throughout the festival.
Support From Indigenous Cultural Institutions
The project is presented with the support of the Indigenous Screen Office and the Indigenous Cinema Alliance, both of which play vital roles in fostering Indigenous storytelling across platforms.
Gardiner’s involvement as a 2025 Indigenous Cinema Alliance Fellow further underscores the project’s connection to a growing global ecosystem of Indigenous innovation in film, immersive media, and interactive art.
These institutions are not only supporting individual projects but helping reshape cultural spaces so Indigenous narratives are embedded within major international festivals and exhibitions.
Conversations Around Indigenous XR and Emerging Media
Alongside the exhibition, Land Invaders will be part of public programs and discussions exploring Indigenous approaches to immersive technology and augmented media. These talks will examine how artists are reframing dominant narratives within museums, galleries, and cultural institutions by embedding Indigenous worldviews into emerging platforms.
Through these conversations, Gardiner and Menendez will reflect on how interactive media can function as both artistic expression and social intervention, offering audiences new ways to experience history, memory, and resistance.
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A New Chapter for Interactive Storytelling
Land Invaders arriving at Berlinale Forum Expanded is more than a milestone for gaming. It represents a broader cultural shift where interactive experiences are recognized as serious artistic and political mediums.
By transforming retro gameplay into a powerful commentary on colonization, trauma, and healing, the project demonstrates how play can become protest, memory can become action, and technology can become a space for reclamation.
As the first video game ever presented within Forum Expanded, Land Invaders opens the door for future generations of interactive artists to bring bold, meaningful work into the world’s most respected cultural institutions, redefining what screen storytelling can truly be.
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