Hannah’s husband is missing and the police have questions.
Her Story follows Hannah’s interrogation and is an interactive full-motion video (FMV) narrative made up of seven police interviews, split into smaller clips viewed on a 1990s-style desktop. Players watch, interpret and dissect these interviews to discover the truth in the characters’ stories.
Independently developed by Sam Barlow, Her Story uses live-action footage instead of rendered character models and is influenced by the directing techniques of Alfred Hitchcock and the Dogme 95 school of filmmaking, as well as real-life interrogations and Sharon Stone’s performance in Basic Instinct (1992).
Curator Notes
Her Story from Sam Barlow uses Full Motion Video (FMV) was very interested in the nature of police interrogation but also the kinds of footage and video you have of things that occur like that. It’s not a noir game, but it references that neo-noir aesthetic, particularly the femme fatale, and parts are inspired by Basic Instinct’s infamous interrogation scene. He also uses the game to question the nature of truth and of reality – the fact you don’t know if what you’ve just seen is true, Basic Instinct is like that too – at the end, you’re not sure if she’s the killer or not. Her Story is also interestingly made, it uses Full Motion Video (FMV), which virtually no other game maker uses at the moment, not since the early 90s, and he’s experimenting with storytelling and interactivity.
– Assistant Curator and Programmer Arieh Offman
Her Story trailer via YouTube.
Related works
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Collection
Not in ACMI's collection
Previously on display
11 February 2022
ACMI: Gallery 1
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Curatorial section
The Story of the Moving Image → Games Lab → GL-03. Cluster 3 → GL-03-C02