What if a video game could help us take on issues of race, housing, and land justice?

That’s what Dot’s Home — a single-player game in which the main character travels through time to key moments in her family’s history — is designed to do.

Players assume the role of Dorthea "Dot" Hawkins, a young Black woman, as she relives her  grandmother’s choice to buy or sell her home, while discovering the seemingly inconsequential decisions with which her family was faced and the long-lasting nature of their impact.

The game is free to play, so try it out!

On September 30, 2023, MODA had the privilege of speaking with Luisa Dantas and Paige Wood: the game’s producers and members of the Rise Home Stories Project.

We discussed why they feel video games are an excellent way to address redlining and racial justice, how telling stories about the past and present can help us shape the future, and other social justice work that Rise-Home Stories doing.

About Luisa Dantas
Brasilian-American filmmaker Luisa Dantas works at the intersection of storytelling, social justice, and cities. As a writer/director, her work spans both fiction and non-fiction content, including short films and feature-length documentary projects. Through her company, JoLu Productions, Luisa produces impact-driven multimedia content for an array of clients in the non-profit and private sectors.

About Paige Wood
Page Wood is an award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and creative consultant. Born in Detroit, Paige has produced and/or co-written a number of critically-acclaimed documentary and narrative films since the start of her freelance career in 2018. Paige is a 2020 Kresge Artist Fellow, an alumni of Firelight Media's 2018-2019 Impact Producer Cohort, as well as a 2019 Sundance Institute | Knight Foundation Program fellow.