DTLA Film Festival Announces Launch of
IMMERSIVE
a New Showcase of VR, AR and Hyper-Reality Experiences
Oct. 19-21 in downtown Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — Oct. 16, 2018 — IMMERSIVE, a new showcase of VR, AR and Hyper-Reality Experiences, will launch Oct. 19-21 at Hotel Figueroa (adjacent to L.A. LIVE) during the 10th annual DTLA Film Festival (Oct. 17-21).
Tickets are now on sale: www.dtlaffimmersive.com
Curated by Justin Ryan Polisky, the 2-hour program includes some of the best new Virtual Reality, Interactive Visual Narrative, Augmented Reality and Location-Based Hyper Reality experiences that extend beyond the headset — all set throughout the newly redesigned historic Hotel Figueroa.
Among them is “The Portal: Messengers of AI,” an Augmented Reality experienc in which angels explode out of Baroque-styled oil paintings, while pulsating to a seven-act symphony. The presentation at IMMERSIVE marks the U.S. premiere of the AR experience, following its world premiere in Hamburg, Germany earlier this year.
Another highlight is “Delusion: Lies Within,” a Hyper-Reality experience in which participants are lead by actors through secret passageways, a hidden speakeasy and eventually into a virtual reality experience. “Delusion: Lies Within” is produced by Skybound Entertainment, a pioneer in immersive experiences.
Having its world premiere at IMMERSIVE, “Spare Change” is a VR experience that sensitively explores L.A.’s Skid Row. All told, more than 25 VR, AR and interactive experiences will make their Los Angeles debuts during the three-day program.
“The technology behind VR, AR and Hyper-Reality experiences is rapidly evolving, so that even those who have tried interactive media before will notice a tangible difference in production quality and overall entertainment value. For newcomers to interactive media, IMMERSIVE will be unlike anything they’ve experienced before,” said Polisky.
A complete list of IMMERSIVE experiences follows:
A__B
USA | Cinematic XR | 2018 | 21 min.
Director: Zane Comer
An interactive film experience and art exhibition that combines cinema, technology and immersive installation in a way that challenges the relationship between audience and creator. You aren’t simple a spectator, you are the experience.
AI NIGHTMARE
USA | 360/VR, Animated Short |2017 | 8 min.
Director: Gillian Wang
A heart-racing home invasion occurs in the dead of night. Milo (your dog) and you are abducted by the AI drone and transported through the galaxy into a more sinister plot, involving rogue A.I. robots that have become increasingly more aggressive thrusting a vicious battle between humans and machines. Escaping from being destroyed, you fall through clouds into a deep ocean. Your world is altered forever……
CALIBAN BELOW
USA |VR, Horror, Mystery, Adventure Short | 2018 | 15 min.
Director: Michael Conelly
In this short interactive story for room-scale VR, you become the scion of a broken lineage, struggling to understand your dark inheritance. Explore the ruins of the family estate, and the incredible realm below as you seek clues to your past, and to the events that severed you from your family long ago.
CITY OF SPARKLES
USA | VR | 2018 | 5hr 10 min.
Director: Botao Hu (Amber) and Yang Liu
Real Twitter messages tell stories of a virtual New York City dynamically shaped with sparkles. Each of sparkles represents a real Twitter message from a resident of the Big Apple, and their colors and motions representing the emotion mood and the geographical location of the message. Audience can freely fly throughout the virtual metropolis, and discovering the messages along the way.
DELUSION: LIES WITHIN
USA | 360/VR/HR | 2018 |36 min.
Director: Jon Braver
During the 1940s in the American South, the reclusive author Elena Fitzgerald built a zealous following with her Stygian Ascent series; an epic of dark fantasy following the life of young Mary on a quest to be rejoined with her mother.
FIODORA’S FABLES
USA | VR | 2018 | 12 min.
Director: Fred Beahm, Aton Sanz-Katz and Ran Sieradzki
A starving hermit finds an egg in a cave. He struggles with the choice to either satisfy his hunger by eating it, or to satisfy his loneliness by nurturing it. What will hatch from the egg might be a trick or it might be a treat.
FLINT 360/VR SHORTS COMPETITION
WINNER: Aleesia Mangham
Students from Flint, Mi will learn how to shoot with 360 cameras while creating a short 360/vr video about growing up in the Vehicle City. Each of the 360/VR video’s will be placed into competition where judges will choose a winning video. The winning student will be flown from Flint to L.A. for the red carpet world premiere of their short 360/vr video at DTLA Film Festival: Immersive.
HEADSET HOTSHOTS
USA | 360/VR, 360/VR Episodic | 2018 | 4 min.
Director: Sam Macaroni
Steve-O hosts an episodic 360/VR show about headset mishaps.
HOW POSITIVITY MOVES THE WORLD
USA | VR (with brain computer interface) | 2017 | 10 min.
Director: Sarah Hill
An immersive narrative is crafted by storytellers, neurofeedback specialists and mobile developers. Based on the true story of Tisha Shelton who was born without arms, the experience on the side of a waterfall-soaked mountain harnesses the power of the user’s own brainwaves to illustrate how positive thinking can literally move mountains.
I AM AZAI AKHAI
USA | 360/VR, Short Documentary | 2018 | 15 min.
Director: Elena Vassilieva
Alhan Dze is a rapper and musician brings Buryat millennials back to the cultural roots of their ancestors through his music using their native Buryat language, folk tunes and shaman chants.
JOURNEY OF GOLD
USA | 360/VR, Short Documentary | 2018 | 8 min.
Director: Jenn Duong
Every day you may hold a piece of Congo in the palm of your hand. Gold is essential to the modern world, as it is used in everything from electronic devices to medical equipment. However, much of the gold in Congo is illegally mined and exported. This VR documentary follows miners in Nyamurhale, as they work to create a safe haven through the Bwenge Buchiza Project.
LALA
USA | 360/VR, Short Documentary | 2017 | 6 min.
Director: Brett Krauss
In this immersive tale, Holocaust survivor Roman Kent tells a true story about love, family, and a dog named Lala.
LIFE UNDERGROUND
France | Interactive Documentary | 2018 | 2hr20min.
Director: Hervé Cohen
An interactive web documentary that invites visitors on a cinematic journey into the subways of the world through the personal stories of passengers. Shot in over 15 city subways, Life Underground captures the pulse of these vibrant environments and the millions of people who pass through them every day. By documenting passengers’ stories of love, dreams, family, migration, and much more, Life Underground reminds us that beneath the surface, we’re all connected.
LONG DISTANCE TRIP
USA | 180/VR | 2018 | 10 min.
Director: Shelley Dennis
Michael, an unhappily married man, time travels back to college for a second chance to choose his one true soul mate. This time-traveling, reality-shaking rom-com explores not only the possibilities of comedy in the virtual realm, but also it puts you in the driver’s seat. Through an interactive experience, you’ll learn about yourself through the journey you take as Michael. Enjoy the ridiculousness of college life again while experiencing two of life’s greatest questions – what does love mean to you, and what are you willing to do for it?
MY AFRICA
UK, Kenya | 360/VR, Short Documentary | 2018 | 9 min.
Director: David Allen
This short documentary transports viewers to the untamed rangelands of northern Kenya where a community is reknitting the bonds that have long enabled people and wildlife to coexist. The story follows the journey of a young Samburu woman named Naltwasha Leripe as she takes viewers through her community’s daily life, tending livestock, digging “singing” wells deep into dry riverbanks and rescuing a baby elephant orphaned by a poacher’s gun. Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o, who herself was raised in Kenya.
NEW WORLD
USA | 360/VR, Music | 2018 | 3 min.
Director: Jenn Duong
A 360 VR music video composed with Watson Beat & Amper AI artificial intelligence, vocals by artist Taryn Southern, with lyrics written by more than 200+ collaborators who own a portion of the song using Ethereum smart contracts. The VR video was directed by Jenn Duong, art by Vladimir Ilic (VRHuman) using Tiltbrush and Google Blocks, and build animation in Unity & Maya by VR Playhouse and Spencer Greller. The 2D integrated video was directed and produced by Taryn Southern.
NOODLES
USA | VR | 2018 | 10 min.
Director: Thu Vu Kim Nguyen
In this VR interactive short film, a slice-of-life story of a little girl named Kat unfolds, as she celebrates her birthday by going out to eat noodles with her father.
REALISM TRAVEL SHOW: HERMOSA BEACH
USA | 360/VR | 2018 | 5 min.
Director: Jon Rawlinson
360° tour of awesome experiences in Hermosa Beach, California.
SPARE CHANGE
USA |360/VR, Short Documentary | 2018 | 10 min.
Director: Donnie Oceans
Donnie spends a week on the streets of Los Angeles in an attempt to better relate to and understand the city’s homeless communities, capturing the stories of those afflicted with chronic homelessness.
THE APARTMENT EXPERIMENT
USA | VR, Horror, Thriller | 2018 | 10 min.
Director: Adam Cosco
A 10–minute narrative VR experience designed entirely in the director’s apartment.
THE CREW
USA | 360/VR | 2017 | 7 min.
Director: Johan Anderson
A Filipino cruise ship cleaner finally gets a chance to perform an opera aria in the crew talent show, but when the show is cancelled he still finds a way to sing.
THE GODS OF DANCE
USA | 360/VR, Visual Narrative Short | 2017 | 6 min.
Director: Jayson Tang
Watch ghost-like dancers from the San Francisco Ballet appear out of the darkness as they move slowly above and around you suspended in space.
The INVISIBLE MUSEUM
USA | XR | 2018 | 72 min.
Director: Marco Franco Di Domenico
This mixed reality experience is activated in rooms throughout the historic Hotel Figueroa. In collaboration with many makers, virtual artworks will appear alongside traditional media. There will be recorded commentary and guided tours from various luminaries, including artists, scientists, designers and oracles, all falling helplessly into virtual space. Conversation topics include the end times and the future.
THE PORTAL: MESSENGERS OF THE AI
Germany | AR Location Based Experience | 2018 | 22 min.
By: Dennis Rudolph and Justin Ryan Polisky
This Gesamtkunstwerk, (synthesis of the arts) is comprised of 17th-century, illusionistic oil paintings with a “Hollywood meets Richard Wagner” seven-act live symphony. Attendees, wearing AR headsets, will watch as weightless ‘Neon Baroque’ Angels pulsate in unison with the symphony, exploding out of the paintings surrounding them.
The Portal: Messengers of the AI is free and open to the public due to the generous support of PoolHaus-Blankenese Foundation and Goethe-Institut. Please RSVP with ian@dtlaff.com in order to reserve a time slot.
THE WAMCO PIE VR EXPERIENCE
USA | VR, Comedy Short | 2017 | 5 min.
Director: Brett Moody
In this satirical VR corporate infomercial, the fictional Wamco Corporation will use Virtual Reality to teach you the incredible value of its amazing product line. By exploring Wamco’s hottest products in Virtual Reality, you’ll understand why it’s wrong to buy products from Wamco’s competitors and consequently never make that mistake again. Ever.
VAIN
USA | 360/VR, Horror | 2017 | 5 min.
Director: Maggie Levin
A warehouse rave makes a colorful snack for a coven of hungry vampires in this immersive 360. short.
WALTER
USA | 360/VR, Animated Short | 2018 | 4 min.
Director: Christopher Kenu Huang
A man who is trying to survive in a deserted island.
IMMERSIVE is hosted by DTLA Film Festival, a Los Angeles nonprofit arts organization dedicated to presenting film, video, TV and interactive content by and about groups underrepresented by Hollywood. IMMERSIVE is sponsored by HTC Vive, Factory Two, LA Preserve, BBG & Hoehl, Goethe-Istitut, The Los Angeles German Consulate.
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Press Contact:
Alisse Kingsley
Muse Media
alissethemuse@aol.com
323-660-1935