VIRTUAL REALITY @ LAROTONDA 2018

An exclusive programme of virtual reality works curated by the Geneva International Film Festival // GIFF.

For the third year, the GIFF presents, as part of its PLUGS program, a Virtual Reality space inside laRotonda, the Village of the Locarno Festival. Every evening between July 27th and August 12th from 6 to 10 PM, a selection of virtual reality films from all over the world will be presented. The public will be able to experiment being a guinea pig for a clinical trial led by an artificial intelligence, dive into a wacky 360° music video or get immersed into Gomorrah, the hit TV series, and literally follow the protagonists as they wander through the streets of Naples.

ALTERATION

Jérôme Blanquet / 2017 / France

Alexandro is the guinea pig for an experiment led by artificial intelligence which insinuates itself even deeper into his subconscious. Inspired by Philip K. Dick, Alteration is one of the most well-crafted VR narratives of the moment won the Reflet d’Or for the Best VR Film at the 2017 GIFF.

BLOODLESS

Gina Kim / 2017 / Republic of Korea, USA

Since the 1950s, American soldiers have been stationed in South Korea. This powerfully realistic and raw VR experience looks back at the violence towards sex workers living near their camps, perpetrated with impunity by those soldiers. Immersion into the banality of evil.

CHAPITA

Eran Amir / 2016 / United Kingdom

Take a dancer. Give her a warehouse for a playfield and a few weird tools to play with. Then virtually multiply that person to the point of saturating the viewer’s field of vision. What do you get? Chapita, a technically perfect, poetic VR video clip.

DREAMS OF ’O’

Félix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphaël / 2016 / Canada

Mermaids, a water ballet, a free dive into a marine world worthy of Jules Verne’s fairyland: when the Cirque du Soleil crosses paths with Félix & Paul, the result can only be sublime.

GOMORRAH VR –  We own the streets

Enrico Rosati / 2017 / Italy

Gomorrah VR – We own the streets acts as a bridge between seasons 2 and 3 of the TV show of the same name. Enrico Rosati immerse the spectator together with the main protagonists into the heart of the Scampia, a popular neighborhood of Naples which has become the nerve center of the camorra.

HEAL TOMORROW

Romain Chassaing / 2016 / France

Romain Chassaing and the Naive New Beaters – with the complicity of Izia – once again push the limits of music videos with this deliciously irreverent 360-degree clip. Be prepared to experience the splendor and disintegration of a rock band in less than five minutes.

NOTES TO MY FATHER

Jayisha Patel / 2017 / India, USA, UK

Set in the lush rural landscapes of Southern India, Notes To My Father is a story of love, grief and reconciliation, between father and daughter. Flooded by past memories of an adolescence spent in an Indian brothel, Ramadevi pens a letter to her father, who unintentionally played a role in his daughter’s trauma.

PROXIMA

Mathieu Pradat / 2017 / France

A man whose soul would leave his body and disappear into the darkness; a terrible threat lurking; a sole beacon of light in the dark night that now surrounds us; we must follow it. A Baudelaire-like VR work, in the form of a space-time loop.

THE PROTECTORS –  Walk in the ranger’s shoes

Imraan Ismail, Kathryn Bigelow / USA / 2017

For National Geographic, moviemaker Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days, The Hurt Locker, Detroit) takes us alongside rangers in the Garamba Park in the DRC who protect elephants against heavily-armed poachers. A quintessential VR documentary.