After the Fallout

13’, 2020, CH/USA
D: Sam Wolson, Dominic Nahr

This unforgettable 360-degree experience pushes past traditional documentary tropes to evoke the reality and emotional gravity of life in Fukushima, ten years after the 2011 nuclear disaster. After the Fallout is an immersive mosaic that takes us through surreal environments in the exclusion zone, relives the struggle of the heroes who worked to prevent the meltdown, and explores the lives of families as they navigate a new world which they have had to adapt to.

Festivals & AWARDS

The work premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was later shown at SXSW and CPH:DOX.

About the directors

Sam Wolson is an immersive film director and photographer. In 2017, he co-directed We Who Remain, the first character-driven VR film shot in an active war zone. It premiered at SXSW and won the best VR film at the Seattle International Film Festival. In 2019, he received a National Geographic Society grant and a Knight Foundation Journalism 360 grant.

Dominic Nahr is a Swiss photojournalist documenting conflicts and humanitarian crises. He was a Time magazine photographer and in Fukushima at the time of the nuclear meltdown in 2011. He has since been covering the aftermath. Nahr has received awards from World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year, Swiss Press Photo, and the Oskar Barnack Newcomer award.

ANANDALA

15’, 2021, USA
D: Kevin Mack

Anandala is a virtual, abstract art world unconstrained by the limits of reality. With the ability to fly, visitors explore a vast three-dimensional labyrinth of evolving shapes and colors populated with intelligent artificial-life called Blorts. Blorts are actual living beings that are expressive, social, curious, and creative. These living artworks are aware of themselves and others, and their behavior is self-determined and unpredictable. The shapeshifting creatures express themselves and interact with visitors and each other through movement, changing color textures, and their own musical language. Each visit is unique because of the emergent, ever-changing nature of the world and its inhabitants. Anandala invites visitors to interact and connect with a variety of curious, friendly lifeforms and explore their natural habitat. 

Festivals & AWARDS

The work premiered at the 78th Venice International Film Festival.

About the director

Kevin Mack is a pioneer of immersive art, computer graphics and visual effects. He received an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on the film, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (1998). Mack's virtual reality artworks, Zen Parade and Blortasia, have been exhibited in art and technology exhibits around the world. Designed to inspire awe and imagination, Mack's work is informed by research in a wide range of fields from neuroscience to artificial life and has been used in therapeutic and medical applications. Mack's latest VR project, Anandala, is an Official Selection of the 78th Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia.

GLIMPSE

22’, 2021, UK/FR/IE
D: Benjamin Cleary, Michael O’Connor

Glimpse is a highly emotive, visual feast set in the imaginative mind of a heartbroken panda named Herbie, who has recently broken up with his girlfriend Rice. Herbie is an illustrator and through his art we delve back through the memories of his relationship from the heart-breaking end to the beautiful beginning. A dreamlike voyage through his mind, his heart, and his illustrations, Glimpse combines compelling storytelling, world class animation and VFX and cutting-edge technology through Unreal Engine to create a unique, immersive, and emotional experience.

Herbie is voiced by Taron Egerton, who won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Elton John in Rocketman, while Rice is voiced by Lucy Boynton, a rising talent who most recently starred in the Netflix hit series The Politician.

Festivals & AWARDS

Glimpse premiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival and this year was named Best VR Work at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

About the director

Benjamin Cleary is an Oscar winning writer/director. His first feature film Swan Song stars Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris and Glenn Close. In 2015 he wrote, directed and edited his first short film Stutterer, which won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short, a Cannes Young Director Award and a London Critic's Circle Award. His short film Wave premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival 2017 and won over 20+ awards at major festivals on the circuit.

Michael O'Connor is an XR writer, director and producer. He designed and produced flagship titles for global video game market leaders SEGA and Nintendo throughout his career in the games industry. His production credits include Football Manager, Donkey Kong Country, Super Smash Brothers and Yoshi's Woolly World. Before working in games, he produced feature films in Ireland. Glimpse is his directorial debut.

KUSUNDA

23’, 2021, DE/NP/SW/CH/TW
D: Felix Gaedtke, Gayatri Parameswaran

Kusunda is a voice-driven virtual reality experience that explores what makes a language fall asleep and what it takes to awaken one. Kusunda shaman Lil Bahadur, who led a traditional hunter gatherer lifestyle for 40 years, has forgotten his indigenous mother tongue when he moved to settle in the village. His granddaughter, Hima, wants to revive it. Most languages at threat belong to indigenous communities such as Kusunda in Nepal. Narrated by its co-creators—Kusunda shaman Lil Bahadur and his granddaughter Hima—Kusunda contrasts two generations set apart by their lifestyles and brought together by the struggle for their indigenous identity. 

Festivals & AWARDS

Kusunda recently won the prestigious Storyscapes Award at Tribeca Film Festival.

About the directors

Gayatri Parameswaran is an award winning writer, director and producer of immersive works. She was born and raised in India and is currently based in Berlin, where she co-founded NowHere Media – a storytelling studio that views contemporary issues through a critical lens. Her work has been exhibited at festivals such as Venice, Tribeca, SXSW, Cannes, HotDocs, United Nations and beyond. She is a Sundance New Frontier alumnus, has won the Storyscapes Award for Best Immersive at Tribeca, Best Use of Immersive Arts at SXSW and the Lumiere Award for Best VR documentary, among other accolades.

Felix Gaedtke is an acclaimed immersive storyteller and creative producer currently based in Berlin. He co-founded the immersive storytelling studio NowHere Media with an urge to create spaces for under-represented voices in mainstream discourses. His passion to convey different realities across the world has led him to working with VR and AR storytelling techniques. He is a Sundance New Frontier alumnus and his immersive works have been exhibited at the Venice Film Festival, SXSW, Cannes XR, the UN, HotDocs, Bergen International Film Festival and beyond.

RED TAIL EP.1

7’, 2021, TW
D: Fish Wang

At a train station floating in the cloud, a mysterious red tail catches the boy’s attention. Chasing the red tail, the boy has traveled through countless magical places, ran into the bizarre creatures, and finally he meets the gentleman, who seems to know his secrets more than he does. When the red tail reminds the boy of his own memory and sadness, what’s the secrets hiding behind, and where will it lead him next?

Festivals & AWARDS

Red Tail Ep.1 was selected in the 2022 Cannes XR program from the Marché du Film. 

About the director

Born in Taipei in 1971, Fish Wang has been involved in animation, comics, sculpture creation, novel writing and gaming industry for over 30 years. His animated short film Gold Fish won the Best Animation Short at Golden Horse Awards in 2018 and the Red Tail series, inspired by Fish’s same named comics story, is his first time involving in virtual reality creation.

REEDUCATED

20’, 2021, USA/KZ
D: Sam Wolson

Reeducated is an award-winning New Yorker documentary that takes viewers inside a detention camp in Xinjiang, China, guided by three men who were imprisoned together at the same facility. Since 2016, authorities in Xinjiang, China have implemented one of the most advanced police states in the world. By 2018, as many as a million people were held in a vast network of “reeducation centers.” It is likely the largest mass-internment drive of ethnic and religious minorities since the Second World War. Using hours of firsthand testimony and hand-drawn animation, and ambisonic audio the VR film reconstructs the experience of detention and political reeducation in an immersive three-dimensional space.

Festivals & AWARDS

Last year, Reeducated won the Grand Prize at the VRHAM! Virtual Reality & Arts Festival and the Special Jury Recognition for Immersive Journalism at SXSW Film Festival.

About the directors

Sam Wolson is an immersive film director and photographer. In 2017, he co-directed We Who Remain, the first character-driven VR film shot in an active war zone. It premiered at SXSW and won the best VR film at the Seattle International Film Festival. In 2019, he received a National Geographic Society grant and a Knight Foundation Journalism 360 grant.

REPLACEMENTS

12’, 2020, JP/ID/DE
D: Jonathan Hagard

Replacements depicts a Javanese family living in a fictional neighbourhood in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. Inspired by people and places that truly exist, they are witnesses of this congested metropolis’s urban, environmental, political, and cultural transformations from about 1980 to 2020. A praise of the satisfaction of impermanent things, it tells about the dented yet peaceful transition of an old traditional village to an uprooted megapolis through three generations. This experience aims to appreciate and introspect Jakarta’s recent history through the eyes of an ordinary family that most Indonesians, from children to elder people, can identify with.

Festivals & AWARDS

Replacements premiered at the 2020 Venice Film Festival and a year later was named Best VR Work at Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

About the director

Jonathan Hagard is a half-French Indonesian director, animator and illustrator based in Kyoto, Japan. Between documentary and animated fiction, based on his experiences and research in sprawling cities such Tokyo and Jakarta, he tells stories through traditional animation and new media.