KAZ: Pushing the Virtual Divide

The Gran Turismo video game franchise is well known for creating a hyper-realistic driving experience. With incredibly detailed tracks and cars that are virtually identical to their real-world brethren, Gran Turismo may be the ultimate driving enthusiast’s video game. It’s got such a presence in the motoring world that Mercedes-Benz developed their Vision Gran Turismo Concept for the game, you can drive the newly designed BMW M4 in GT right now, and people that learned racing in the game have become real-world drivers competing in and winning races.

KAZ: Pushing the Virtual Divide is a documentary film looking at the man behind the Gran Turismo series, Kazunori, “Kaz”  Yamauchi. Directed by Tamir Moscovici, the film examines Kaz’s history with cars and what it takes to create a video game with the success of Gran Turismo. Go behind-the-scenes with what goes into creating this sort of game, including how the team recreates real-world tracks using photographs and laser scanning technology. We also visit the Nissan GT Academy, which takes successful GT players and trains them to race in real cars on real tracks.

Check out the trailer for the film above and you can stream the entire film on Hulu.