The World’s a Stage: An Introduction to ‘Grand Theft Hamlet’ and Other Documentaries Made in Video Games

The World’s a Stage: An Introduction to ‘Grand Theft Hamlet’ and Other Documentaries Made in Video Games

Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s Grand Theft Hamlet (2024) is the latest in a wave of documentaries shot entirely inside Grand Theft Auto or other video games. Playing a game is often no longer a solitary exercise but a social one, and we can understand games not as experiences separate from the “real” world but as an extension of it. Within that new paradigm, it makes sense that we’re seeing more documentaries explore game spaces as if they are phy…