Virtual reality propels unique technology that places the audience directly in someone else’s shoes, generating understanding for someone else’s perspectives, experiences and existence. With a focus on storytelling mechanisms and narrative approaches, we ask these VR experts about the challenges, victories and limits of a creator’s ability to generate empathy.
Sponsored by VIVEPORT.
Moderator
Kamal Sinclair, Director, New Frontier Labs Program, Sundance Institute
Kamal Sinclair is a producer, acclaimed theatrical director, community arts leader and multi-disciplinary artist interested in exploring innovative ways to create art using the technology and connected culture of the 21st century. She currently serves as director of the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Labs Program, which supports artists working at the convergence of film, art, media and technology; as a consultant to the Ford Foundation's JustFilms program; and as artist and producer on the Question Bridge: Black Males transmedia art project.
Speakers
Irem Harnak, Director, Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity
Irem Harnak is a visual artist born in Istanbul, and she has lived and worked in London, UK. Irem is an editorial and portrait photographer interested in creating narratives through her own visual language. Her editorial work has been in publications such as Marie Claire China, Excelente and Models.com. Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity is a VR project born out of a photo series about masculinity and transgender men. Irem has previously lensed two indie feature films and one VR short film.
Winslow Porter, Director, Tree
Winslow Porter is a Brooklyn-based director, producer and creative technologist specializing in virtual reality and large-scale immersive installations. In 2014, he produced the Tribeca Film Festival Transmedia Award-winning documentary CLOUDS. Winslow formed the New Reality Company with Milica Zec in 2016, a creative studio that produced the critically acclaimed cinematic VR experiences Giant and Tree. Last year, New Reality Company was selected as Adweek’s Top 100 creatives as digital innovators.
Elli Raynai, Director, Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity
Elli Raynai is a writer, producer, director, and VR creator. He formed the production company Cinehackers in early 2015 to focus on making interactive virtual reality experiences with a strong focus on storytelling. His first experience, I Am You, was the official selection of the 2016 Kaleidoscope VR World Tour and can be found on the Oculus Gear VR store. Made This Way is his first venture into the documentary genre using the virtual reality medium.
Matthieu Rytz, Director, Anote's Ark
Matthieu Rytz is a producer, curator, photographer and director. A visual anthropologist by training, his passion for photography and ethnology has taken him around the world for the past ten years. His photographs, as well as those he has commissioned, have been exhibited internationally. He specializes in photographic installation and is currently working on a multidisciplinary project using film, still images and virtual reality. He recently produced, filmed and directed his first feature, Anote’s Ark, which had it's world premiere at Sundance 2018.