The winner of the second Doc/Fest Alternate Realities Commission has been announced. The Award commission is worth £10,000 (GBP) which is awarded in partnership between FACT and Arts Council England. The winners are Alex Pearson and creative collective Marshmallow Laser Feast.
The project that netted the winners the award was Future Aleppo, the story of how a young Syrian boy named Mohammed Kteish painstakingly recreated the city of Aleppo with papercraft models after he was forced to flee his homeland in the face of violence and conflict.
Pearson and the Marshmallow Laser Feast used photogrammetry and 3D modelling to recreate those delicate paper models in a virtual reality (VR) experience where users will be guided by Mohammed through the buildings, showing the life he lived in the city that is now destroyed.
Curator of Alternate Realities, Dan Tucker said: “Future Aleppo is a poignant and powerful project. I am excited to see how Alex and Marshmallow Laser Feast interpret Mohammed’s story told through his beautiful paper-craft models, created to defy the destruction of his home city. As a creative team Alex and Marshmallow Laser Feast are well known for pushing boundaries and making the impossible possible. We are thrilled that Future Aleppo is the Alternate Realities Commission for 2017 and look forward to sharing it with audiences in Sheffield in June.”
Sheffield Doc/Fest will take place from 9th-14th June 2017, where Future Aleppo will see its première, alongside several other films, documentaries, talks and discussions. Further information and tickets can be found on the Sheffield Doc/Fest website.
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