Virtual Arcade debuts at the 2016 Festival, helping to expand the immersive entertainment slate with thirteen additional VR experiences from some of the leading creators and emerging voices in this new medium. The selections, available April 18-23, include:
ALLUMETTE
Project Creators: Eugene Chung, Jimmy Maidens, Penrose Studios
An orphan girl, living in a fantastical city in clouds, endures tragedy. Lighting enchanted matches, she relives her past and grasps at future hope. The story is a meditation on the sacrifices people make for the greater good. Crafted by Penrose Studios, ALLUMETTE is set in a fully-immersive, virtual reality world.
THE ARTIST OF SKID ROW
Project Creator: Molly Swenson, Tyson Sadler, Hayley Pappas/RYOT
Key Collaborators: Bryn Mooser, LAMP
Ramiro Puentes is an outstanding artist – photographs, paintings, sculpture, poetry. But more than that, he’s risen from crippling poverty and used art to reimagine the streets of Skid Row.
ASHES
Project Creator: Jessica Kantor/supported by Vrideo
Playing with movement, space and time, ASHES shares the tragic story of two lovers, told specifically for 360-headset environment. Director/Producer Jessica Kantor draws upon her classical ballet training to bring us this unique piece inspired by choreographer Pina Bausch, known for telling stories through dance.
THE CRYSTAL REEF
Project Creator: Cody Karutz and Lauren Knapp/Stanford University
Key Collaborator: Jeremy Bailenson
A rocky reef off the coast of Italy demonstrates the future of climate change. Meet Dr. Fio Micheli, the marine scientist who studies this reef, and dive underwater with her to learn about ocean acidification and how human-produced carbon dioxide will turn all the world’s oceans into what scientists are calling “the ocean moonscape.”
THE CRYSTAL REEF: INTERACTIVE
Project Creator: The Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL)
Key Collaborator: Stanford University
Experience climate change firsthand in this fully immersive virtual reality experience. Use your hands to swim and examine marine life as you become a scientist and discover “ocean acidification.” Dive through a digital replica of the reefs of Ischia, Italy and learn about how these reefs are a “crystal ball” that show the future of all the world’s oceans.
DRAGONFLIGHT
Project Creators: Michael Conelly, Will Telford, Keith Goldfarb, Lyndon Barrois/Blackthorn Media
A spectacular dragon embarks on a hero’s journey to do battle against a duplicitous sorcerer and protect the world from the second coming of his ancient and powerful progenitor. DRAGONFLIGHT is the debut project of VR studio Blackthorn Media, an Academy and Emmy Award-winning team of story-tellers, visual effects veterans, programmers and artists.
HARD WORLD FOR SMALL THINGS
Project Creator: Janicza Bravo/Wevr
Key Collaborators: Wevr, Seed&Spark, Han West
Award-winning film and theater director Janicza Bravo ventures into the world of VR with an exploration of the circumstances and lives affected by a single tragedy in Los Angeles. Drawing from a real-life experience, Bravo and studio collaborators Wevr craft a remarkably powerful narrative that culminates in a devastating conclusion.
Read an interview with Janicza Bravo about making Hard World for Small Things and tackling social justice through film, at TribecaFilm.com.
HOLIDAYS: CHRISTMAS VR
Project Creators: Distant Corners/John Hegerman, Scott Stewart, Amanda Mortimer, Gabriela Revilla Lugo, Wevr
When a man stoops to dangerous new lows to get his son the ultimate VR headset for Christmas, he finds out more about himself and his family than he ever wanted to know. From writer/director Scott Stewart (LEGION, PRIEST) and starring Emmy Award-winning actor Seth Green and Clare Grant, CHRISTMAS is part of Distant Corners’ HOLIDAYSanthology feature created by John Hegeman and produced in association with XYZ Films.
Read an interview with Christmas VR filmmaker Scott Stewart about tapping into virtual reality's potential in the horror genre, at TribecaFilm.com.
INVASION
Project Creators: Eric Darnell, Maureen Fan/Baobab Studios
Directed by Eric Darnell (Antz and Madagascar), this interactive and animated film follows menacing aliens with vastly superior technology who come to claim the Earth and destroy anyone in their way. Despite incredible odds, Earth's citizens rise up and defeat the evil aliens. Surprisingly, these Earthly citizens are not humans but a pair of the cutest, meekest and cuddliest creatures of our planet -- two fluffy white bunnies.
KANJU
Project Creator: Stephanie Riggs / Azimyth Creation Studios
Key Collaborators: The Nantucket Project, Harbers Studios
Journey across Africa in search of Kanju, “creativity born of struggle.” Visit a floating school rising from the slums of Makoko. Witness President Obama's historic speech in Nairobi from the press pit. This uplifting, immersive documentary seamlessly layers traditional narrative techniques and 360o live action. Feel the power of storytelling merged with technology and rediscover Africa as the bright continent.
KILLER DEAL
Project Creators: Irad Eyal, Aaron Rothman, Anthony C. Ferrante, iMan Productions, Better VR Studios
Key Collaborator: Ian Ziering
Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante (Sharknado 1, 2 & 3), Killer Deal follows a struggling machete salesman who runs into trouble when his discount hotel room comes with an unwelcome guest. A very unwelcome guest. The experience takes all the things we love about over-the-top horror and puts the viewer right in the middle of the “splash zone.”
Read an interview with Killer Deal filmmaker Anthony C. Ferrante about tapping into virtual reality's potential in the horror genre, at TribecaFilm.com.
MY MOTHER'S WING
Project Creators: Gabo Arora, Ari Palitz/Vrse.works
Key Collaborators: Chris Milk, Patrick Milling Smith, Samantha Storr
In Gaza, foundations are built, destroyed, and built again. This virtual reality experience follows the struggle and strength of a mother coping with the death of her two children in the 2014 war.
Read an interview with My Mother's Wing co-creator Gabo Arora about working with the United Nations to expand virtual reality's potential, at TribecaFilm.com.
OLD FRIEND
Project Creator: Tyler Hurd/Wevr
Lose yourself in a vibrant psychedelic dance party brimming with joyful insanity. VR filmmaker Tyler Hurd and Wevr present a fun animated VR music video experience for Old Friend by Future Islands. Gaze upon the elegant dance routines and enjoy the blissful absurdity. Unhinge yourself, feel the ridiculousness and dance like everyone is watching.
SEEKING PLUTO'S FRIGID HEART
Project Creator: New York Times Key Collaborators: Lunar Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association
Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart is a stereoscopic VR experience that brings viewers to Pluto. Watch the New Horizons spacecraft zoom through space, soar over rugged mountains and bright plains, and stand on Pluto’s unique surface as its largest moon hovers over the horizon.
THE CLICK EFFECT
Project Creators: Sandy Smolan, James Nestor
Annapurna Pictures, Vrse, Vrse.works, The New York Times Op-Docs, The Sundance Institute
Free-dive one hundred feet below the ocean’s surface to discover the “click” communication of dolphins and sperm whales. The Click Effect is a live-action VR experience from Annapurna Pictures, Vrse.works, Sandy Smolan, and James Nestor; the first in a series of immersive journalism experiments commissioned by New Frontier at Sundance Institute, published by The New York Times Op-Docs.
GRATEFUL DEAD: TRUCKIN’
Project Creator: Jaunt VR
Key Collaborators: Ryan Wiederkehr, Patrick Meegan, Joey Santana, Dennis “Wiz” Leonard, Cliff Plumer
A sneak peek VR experience of the Grateful Dead's historic "Fare Thee Well" final tour. Mixed in Dolby Atmos, the audience is given unprecedented access to the bands performance of the hit song "Truckin", from a vantage that is otherwise impossible to experience.
COLLISIONS
Project Creator: Lynette Wallworth
Key Collaborators: Nyarri Morgan (featured); Nicole Newnham (producer); Curtis Taylor (narrator); Karryn de Cinque (editor); Patrick Meegan (director of photography); Jaunt VR
From acclaimed Australian artist/filmmaker Lynette Wallworth, Collisions is a virtual reality journey to the homeland of indigenous elder Nyarri Morgan and the Martu tribe in the Western Australian desert. It explores the dramatic collision between Nyarri's traditional world view and the cutting edge of Western science and technology, when he witnessed firsthand and with no context, an atomic test.
PERSPECTIVE 2: THE MISDEMEANOR
Project Creators: Rose Troche, Morris May
Key Collaborators: Amy Lo, Charles Ottoway
When two young men are stopped by a police officer in Brooklyn, a simple misdemeanor spirals out of control. A gripping drama shot live-action in 360 degrees and weaving between four distinct points-of-view, The Misdemeanor highlights the subjectivity of memory and personal experience with an ambitious approach to narrative storytelling in virtual reality.