VIRTUAL REALITY
The Chelsea Film Festival 9th annual edition in 2021 presented 141 Films from 21 countries. The Official line up included 24 Features (Narrative and Documentary), 94 Short Films, 17 TV Series/Pilots and 6 VR experiences showcased on Film Festival Plus from October 14-17, 2021.
EXHAUST 1.0 By Dionne Walker-Amponsah
5 min | Social Issues | United Kingdom, France | 2021
Synopsis: A refugee steers a narrowboat along the canal through a tunnel while local immigrants reflect on their experience. The story is about crossing borders and urban migration.
ILIOS By Mika Johnson, Marcel Karnapke
9 min | Environmental | Czech Republic, Germany | 2020
Synopsis: ILIOS is a meditation on the state of flux we are all living in today: a moment where patterns emerge only to change in such rapid succession that normality can only be assumed in short bursts. The project evolved as a correspondence between artists Marcel Karnapke and Mika Johnson during the COVID-19 shut down after a digital project they were working on was put on hold, due to Johnson being stranded all spring in North America. The two artists continued to communicate, discussing the meaning of the shutdown and COVID-19 in their personal lives. ILIOS is the result of that conversation.
MAYFLOWER REFLECTIONS By Paul Long
13 min | Art History | United Kingdom | 2020
Synopsis: MAYFLOWER REFLECTIONS takes you on a journey from the English churches of the 1600’s to the deck of the Mayflower Ship and the early settlements of the Plymouth Colony. With unifying themes that explore the world in which we live, it is a reminder of the struggles of the past, an overview of our present, and a chance to imagine a brighter future. It is a 12 minute VR immersive experience to inspire and educate audiences about this incredible story of the world we live in.
MEET MORTAZA By Joséphine Derube
13 min | Art History | United Kingdom | 2020
Synopsis: At the age of 24, Mortaza had to flee his own country, Afghanistan, because he was sentenced to death by the religious authorities. Forced into exile, through a dangerous and clandestine road, Mortaza will reach Europe to join the country he wished to ask for asylum: France.
Meet Mortaza VR tells the twelve-year-journey of a young man who wanted to live free. The experience plunges the audience into Mortaza’s recollections, sharing his intimacy, dreams, doubts and fights for freedom.For best experience, we recommend to watch MEET MORTAZA on a VR headset.
SPRINGS JOY By Oscar J. Corral
9 min | Environmental | United States | 2021
Synopsis: SPRINGS JOY is an immersive 360 short documentary about the joy and wonder of Florida’s unique but endangered fresh water springs. A section of north Florida contains the largest springs and the highest concentration of freshwater springs on earth. And people never forget their first experience with one. Springs Joy takes viewers into the middle of the action, where the only thing missing is the cool water splashing on their faces as they plunge into the world of these magnificent crystalline springs.
TEMPLE BURN 2020 By Simeone “Eno” Scaramozzino
25 min | Social Issues | Italy | 2020
Synopsis: The Burning Man Community gathers in the Metaverse for a ceremonial burning of the Temple, the spiritual heart of their ephemeral city in the desert. In an immersive, spiritually stimulating journey, primordial and sacred cathartic fires dance within their collective, transcendental heartspace, tuning them into a blissful synaesthesia and ushering in a metaphysical shift.Different truths live within us and are accessible through our inner technology: our ability to drift through states of consciousness, in which we reconnect with one another as imaginal “cells” in the impermanent body of humanity — with limiting beliefs shed from our perception-building “membranes” and with ever-expanding heartfelt awareness that we can be reborn as an ecosystemic, integrated, and thriving “energy organism” with a lighter and harmonious touch on one another and the planet. As we journey towards Love, human connection is — and will continue to be — the heart of the symbiotic Metaverse.