The Oprah Winfrey Network will unveil a new documentary Thursday at 9 p.m. — “Life 2.0” — that explores the world of people who start substituting life online for “real world” encounters.
Director Jason Spingarn-Koff zeroes in on customers of the Second Life virtual reality website, but the sensitive and engrossing 90-minutes could apply to any of the intense fantasy relationships that are possible on the Internet.
Spingarn-Koff clearly has remarkable gifts as an interviewer — all of the subjects in the film reveal very intimate aspects of their lives and in a few cases they allowed the director to track their behavior for months (or years?).
Second Life provides customers with the ability to create an alternate personality that can then interact with other anonymous “avatars” on the site. Some of the people we meet live on Second Life use avatars that are only slight variations of their actual personalities. Others role play to an extraordinary degree.
A lively and funny African-American woman in Detriot lives as a slimmer and slightly sexier fashion and lifestyle merchant on Second Life where she has actually created a business for herself selling upscale clothing and home furnishings to the avatars.
The small purchases people make to liven up their virtual lives adds up to a six-figure income for the Detroit woman who spends about 12 hours a day in the basement of her family home desiging and selling.
The business runs into trouble when someone steals her ideas and starts giving away the goods. A lawsuit is filed which might have lasting implications on Internet sites.
The most time in “Life 2.0” is devoted a Westchester, N.Y. woman and a Canadian man whose avatars meet and fall in love in Second Life (below). They eventually divorce their spouses and try for a “First Life” romance that demonstrates the huge gulf between fantasy and reality.
Spingarn-Koff is refreshingly even-handed in his treatment of sensitive material. He never mocks his subjects even when their behavior is at its most bizarre. The filmmaker seems to understand that while most of us might not spend 12 hours a day on Second Life, we are all sorting through the pluses and minuses of the time we spend online.
Set your DVR for OWN this Thursday at 9 p.m. I don’t think you’ll be sorry you did.
What about a little something for the intellectuals? Maybe have a virtual reality where two librarians discuss Proust with me? That would be smokin hot….(actually I borrowed this from Woody Allen)