Category: Tribeca Immersive

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Binge 20 Tribeca Shorts for Free on Meta Quest

The Tribeca Festival returns for 2022 this week with a massive selection of films, shorts, XR content and more, viewable online via desktop and virtual reality (VR) as well as physical events. For the first time, however, organisers have teamed up with Meta to showcase 20 Tribeca Shorts via Horizon Worlds for Meta Quest.

Skin & Bone
Amanda Seyfried in Skin & Bone. Image credit: Tribeca Festival

First reported by Variety, the selection of 20 short films will be shown in the new Venues section of the Horizon Worlds metaverse beginning this Friday, 10th June. Running for five days, each day will have a new selection so you’ll have to pop back to watch them all. Notable additions include Skin & Bone, a 17-minute horror starring Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia!, Chloe), directed and written by Eli Powers (Holy Moses).

“At Tribeca we always explore new ways of storytelling, so we are thrilled to partner with Meta and create our first shorts program to play in VR,” said Ben Thompson, head shorts programmer for Tribeca. “We have curated a range of Tribeca Festival films including out-of-this-world science fiction and impactful documentaries that will excite and inspire audiences in this new storytelling frontier.”

Oculus Venues used to be a separate app but last month Meta announced it would be merged with Horizon Worlds as the company builds its metaverse vision. Venues shuttered yesterday which means the only way to watch the Tribeca Shorts in VR is in North America, as Horizon Worlds is region locked currently. For everyone else, the shorts can be viewed via Tribeca’s Facebook page.

Horizon Venues

Tribeca Shorts 2022 in Horizon Venues

  • 10th June
    • Echoes in the Arctic (2021)
    • Queen of Basketball (2021)
    • Sixth of June (2021)
  • 11th June
    • Carementis (2021)
    • Gets Good Light (2021)
    • TOTO (2021)
    • Abducted (2021)
  • 12th June
    • Kapaemahu (2021)
    • Miss Panama (2021)
    • Umbrella (2021)
    • Magnolia Bloom (2021)
  • 13th June
    • Six Nights (2021)
    • VERA (2021)
    • Black Ghost Sun (2021)
    • Night Ride (2022)
  • 14th June
    • Peggy (2019)
    • The Originals (2022)
    • There Are Bunnies on Fire in the Forest (2021)
    • Girls Night In (2022)
    • Skin & Bone (2022)

Apart from the shorts, you can also enjoy Tribeca Immersive content programming through The Museu of Other Realities.

As you may have spotted, the festival has now dropped the “Film” part of its name because over the years it’s become so much more. Alongside the staple film selection, there are immersive experiences, videogames, and podcasts to enjoy. Tribeca Festival is both online and in-person in New York City, running from 8th-19th June 2022. For further updates keep reading gmw3.

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Tribeca Immersive Returns in June With 20+ XR Works

Film festivals have become important events for immersive artists to showcase their latest works and soon it’ll be time once again for Tribeca Immersive. Today, the festival has unveiled its official selection, with immersive works from around the world utilising virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and audience participation.

Green Eyed Monster
Iago, A Green-Eyed Monster. Image credit Tribeca Immersive

Being held in-person and virtually, Tribeca Immersive will be split into three categories; Main Competition, New Voices, and Best of Season. And for the first time, Tribeca’s selection has been thematically curated to: “address human beings’ relationship with nature and society through digital art and advanced technology.”

Tribeca Immersive 2022 Selection

  • Main Competition
    • Evolver
    • Intravene
    • Kubo Walks the City
    • Missing Pictures: Episodes 3 – 5
    • Mushroom Cloud NYC/ RISE
    • Please, Believe Me
    • ReachYou
    • Zanzibar: Trouble in Paradise
  • New Voices
    • Black Movement Library – Movement Portraits
    • Emerging Radiance: Honoring the Nikkei Farmers of Bellevue
    • Iago: The Green Eyed Monster
    • LGBTQ+ VR Museum
    • Limbotopia
    • Mescaform Hill: The Missing Five
    • Planet City VR
    • Plastisapiens
    • This is Not a Ceremony
  • Best of Season
    • Container
    • End of Night
    • Exhibition A
    • Glimpse

“Tribeca Festival’s immersive programming showcases creators using the latest in technology to tell their stories,” said Casey Baltes, Vice President Tribeca Games & Immersive in a statement. “The projects we’ve curated push the boundaries of XR in both physical and digital exhibitions for audiences in New York City and around the globe.”

Evolver
Evolver. Image credit Tribeca Immersive

“Each experience presented at Tribeca’s immersive exhibition encompasses a standalone reality, represents a cause, or serves as an embassy to a world where users have agency — a chance to act: bear witness, make a statement, reach out, or simply play,” said Ana Brzezińska, Immersive Curator at Tribeca Festival. “We invite everyone to visit the virtual worlds created by artists, who take us on a meaningful journey of their vision, and tell evocative stories that demand to be told.”

Tribeca Immersive (10th – 19th June) will run alongside the main Tribeca Festival (8th – 19th June) at various destinations throughout New York City with the main immersive exhibition held at Spring Studios. The great thing about the immersive aspect of the festival is that you don’t need to physically attend to see most of it, so long as you have a PCVR headset. Simply download the free Museum of Other Realities app and purchase an Immersive Exhibition Online Ticket for $20 USD when they go live on 2nd May.

For continued updates from Tribeca Immersive, keep reading gmw3.

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Virtual Film Festival XR3 Returns Tomorrow

XR3 - MOR

Last month Cannes XR, Tribeca Immersive and NewImages Festival collaborated on an XR industry first, a multi festival event held inside the Museum of Other Realities (MOR) called XR3. Also, rather unusually, access to XR3 online was split across two dates, with the next availability starting tomorrow 6th July.

Tribeca - MOR

MOR used to cost around £15 GBP on Steam and Viveport yet for the launch of XR3 in June the app was free to download. That’s going to remain so from now on, with MOR Museums Inc. confirming the app would be permanently free this month. If you did purchase MOR: “We want to thank everyone who purchased the MOR app, as without you, we wouldn’t be here. We’ll be in touch soon with in-app gifts of gratitude,” the company said in a tweet.

As for XR3, once you’ve got MOR downloaded you can then purchase each film festival’s content selection separately, providing plenty of titles for all you immersive film fans out there – there are over 30 works to explore. There’s a really wide variety of artistic expression on show, highlighting some of the amazing work being created within the XR industry.

Some of these you might already be familiar with as they’ve now been publically released for headsets. Most recently was the 45-minute mystery adventure Madrid Noir, developed by No Ghost and produced by Atlas V, arriving for Oculus Quest last week. Even Cortopia Studios’ puzzle videogame Down the Rabbit Hole makes an appearance.

Jailbirds

The XR3 content lineup:

  • Tribeca Immersive
    • The Changing Same: Episode 1
    • Critical Distance
    • Bystanding: The Feingold Syndrome
    • Jailbirds
    • Madrid Noir
    • Marco & Polo Go Round
    • Missing Pictures
    • Paper Birds Pt. 1 & 2
    • POV: Points of View
    • A Life in Pieces: The Diary and Letters of Stanley Hayami
    • The Passengers: The Kid
    • We Are At Home
    • Mine
  • NewImages Festival
    • Down the Rabbit Hole
    • Strands of Mind
    • Amends
    • Lady Sapiens, The Experience
    • Biolum
    • Paper Birds
    • Namoo
    • Jailbirds
    • Marco & Polo Go Round
    • We Are At Home
    • Kinshasa Now
    • Noah’s Raft
    • Reeducated
  • Cannes XR
    • The Dawn of Art
    • Agence
    • Book of Distance
    • Corpus Misty
    • Deep

XR3 via the Museum of Other Realities runs from 6th – 17th July for the final time. For all the latest immersive film updates, keep reading VRFocus.

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Museum of Other Realities is Currently Free as Cannes, Tribeca and NewImages Launch XR3 Exhibition

Tribeca - MOR

Normally, film festivals tend to spread themselves out over the course of spring and summer to gain maximum exposure and attendance. What with the current situation regarding live events most have turned to a digital format to reach audiences. This has led to three major shows, Cannes XR, Tribeca Immersive and NewImages Festival combining efforts this week to showcase their immersive content across one hybrid event, XR3.

Jailbirds

To make this happen all three VR selections have been made available through the Museum of Other Realities (MOR), a virtual exhibition space that has previously been used for a number of events over the past year. Usually, these types of events aren’t always freely accessible or cheap but XR3 provides the best opportunity yet to view a varied selection of immersive works. To start with, MOR is currently free until 21st June 2021 – rather than the usual price of £15.49 GBP – via Steam and Viveport so it’s well worth adding to your library at any rate.

Each of the individual festivals are then paid DLC, all priced at £11.39 ($15 USD), so there’s not one giant entry fee if you want to see one particular selection. You can also gain entry into the festivals if you’ve bought one of their own passes or received accreditation. It’s worth noting that the DLC will only be available for a limited time, in two parts. Part one is open now until 20th June, after which the XR3 showcase will be closed until July. It’ll then reopen between 6th – 17th July.

If you’re into VR and how creators are blending storytelling with immersive filmmaking then XR3 has a lot to offer. Between all three selections there are over 50 works to explore, showcasing the amazing breadth of talent currently pursuing immersive arts. Due to the sheer amount of content you’ll need to ensure your computer has plenty of space as the DLC are download-heavy files, ranging between 30-50GB each.

Bystanding: The Feingold Syndrome

Works include 2021 premieres as well as previously released content like Paper Birds from last year. New projects exhibiting at XR3 include Madrid Noir, a 45-minute animated caper; Jailbirds, a tale about the prison system and freedom; Bystanding: The Feingold Syndrome, an immersive docufiction sharing the confessions of people who witnessed a kayak-rower drown, and Unity for Humanity Showcase which houses five works inside the Unity Garden.

Plus, if you happen to be in New York City, the Tribeca Film Festival is also hosting live, in-person events for all the works being shown. That includes the VR content at special locations. There’s also works such as the Inside Goliath – an account of one man’s experience of living with schizophrenia and psychosis – VR installation which can only be viewed in person.

The trend for virtual events looks set to stay as festivals can reach a much broader audience, so VRFocus will continue to cover these exciting developments.

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Step Into Tribeca’s Cinema360 Festival From Your own Home

Tribeca - Lutaw

It’s quite often the case that only a few immersive films ever make it away from the film festivals, securing funding for a wider public release. Those that have tend to receive substantial backing such as Spheres or Traveling While Black. The current pandemic has shifted expectations regarding what these types of events can achieve when forced to move to a digital format, one of the best examples being today’s release of Tribeca Immersive’s Cinema360 programme thanks to Oculus.

Tribeca - HomeAs previously reported, the pair have partnered up in a way which allows everyone at home to enjoy a selection of short films from around the world, from 360-degree videos to animation. It’s a chance to showcase some of the wonderful talent emerging across the globe, creatives experimenting with immersive technology to tell imaginative stories or tackle serious subjects in new ways.

While it is a bit of a shame the content is limited to Oculus TV and therefore purely Oculus Quest and Oculus Go headsets (which means no Oculus Rift support), for those that do have access to either then the selection of free content is worth exploring, split across four sections; Dreams to  Remember, Seventeen Plus, Kinfolk and Pure Imagination.

There are a total of 15 films across the categories and while there is certainly some stand out gems, they’re all worth a look; especially considering they’re only available until 25th April. Those which caught VRFocus’ eye include Rain Fruits from South Korea, a story about Tharu who comes to Korea from Myanmar in search of work as an engineer and the hardships he faces as an alien worker.

Tribeca - Attack on DaddyOr then there’s 360 video Home from Taiwan, a touching family film where the viewer is the grandmother, who can no longer move, react, or hear clearly. It’s a day in the life, where all the family get together, enjoying one another’s company. For those who like animation Lutaw from the USA/Philippines is a high-quality production, following two siblings who look for a better way to commute to the other island where their school is.

For a mixture for styles including 360-video, CGI and a play on scale, then there’s Attack on Daddy, another South Korean film where a dad looks for his daughter inside her dollhouse. And because these are all easily accessible through Oculus TV, if you’re using Oculus Quest then you’ve also got full hand tracking control to play with.

Most importantly Tribeca’s mini VR film festival is a great showcase for the future of film festivals online and through VR headsets. The ability to reach a mass audience rather than the elite few is what content like this needs, so hopefully this will continue and become more widespread into the future.

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Tribeca Film Festival’s Cinema360 to Release Select Online Programming for Oculus TV and Oculus Quest This Month

Just like most other large scale events around the world, the annual Tribeca Film Festival has had to shutter its physical operations which usually take place in New York City during April. The event will still be providing select programming online including Tribeca Immersive’s Cinema360, with a range of virtual reality (VR) content being shown in partnership with Oculus.

Tribeca - Attack on Daddy
Attack on Daddy – Tribeca Film Festival

For what would have been the festivals 19th event, its Cinema360 programme will present 15 films via Oculus TV, Oculus Go and Oculus Quest from 17th to 25th April. These will be curated into four 30-40 minute programs for you to watch at home, one of the first festivals to provide such a service, continuing to support filmmakers and creators worldwide.

Selections range from science fiction and horror to romance and comedy, with 10 of the 15 creators making their global premiere during the festival run. Additionally, Oculus will be releasing 2019 Tribeca Storyscapes Award winner The Key as an app for Oculus Rift/Rift S and Oculus Quest. Created by Celine Tricart, was The Key was made in conjunction with Friends of Refugees and Oculus VR For Good.

The 15 Tribeca Immersive Cinema360 films are:

  • Tale of the Tibetan Nomad
  • Upstander
  • Attack on Daddy
  • Lutaw
  • Home
  • The Inhabited House
  • Ferenj: A Graphic Memoir in VR
  • Black Bag
  • The Pantheon of Queer Mythology
  • Saturnism
  • A Safe Guide to Dying
  • Rain Fruits
  • Forgotten Kiss
  • Dear Lizzy
  • 1st Step

“Now, more than ever, we are feeling incredibly isolated from one another,” said Loren Hammonds, Senior Programmer of Film & Immersive, in a statement. “The XR community is very much a global community, as evidenced by this program which features work from China, South Korea, Spain and Ethiopia, just to name a few. It’s my hope that by providing these remarkable 360 films to a global audience during this trying time, we can do our part to bring people back together in the name of great art and shared perspectives.”

Tribeca - Lutaw

“As human beings, we are navigating uncharted waters,” adds Tribeca Enterprises and Tribeca Film Festival Co-Founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal. “While we cannot gather in-person to lock arms, laugh, and cry, it’s important for us to stay socially and spiritually connected. Tribeca is about resiliency, and we fiercely believe in the power of artists to bring us together. We were founded after the devastation of 9/11 and it’s in our DNA to bring communities together through the arts.”

Also, today is the launch of the Tribeca X Awards. All the finalists from Adidas, Adorama, Dior, Dove, Hewlett Packard, Kelly Services, Lime, Procter & Gamble, Red Bull, Square, Synchrony Bank, and Volvo Car UK are available to view via Tribeca’s website.

For further coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival, keep reading VRFocus.

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Over 30 Immersive Experiences to Debut at the Tribeca Film Festival

Next month will see the start of the 18th annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. In preparation, Tribeca Immersive has announced its schedule of more than 30 cinematic and cutting-edge virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) experiences.

Doctor Who

Tribeca Immersive encompasses two events during the Festival, Virtual Arcade, presented by AT&T, and Tribeca Cinema360. Virtual Arcade will feature a lineup of 21 immersive experiences from new and established artists, while Tribeca Cinema360 will see 12 curated screenings take place in a custom theatre.

“Tribeca Immersive remains committed to the power of new technology as a dynamic vehicle for storytelling,” said Loren Hammonds, Senior Programmer, Film & Immersive for Tribeca Film Festival. “This year’s programming spans a myriad of genres, including many world premiere VR, MR and AR experiences.”

The Virtual Arcade will feature the following lineup:

  • 2nd Civil War (World Premiere) – USA – 2nd Civil War has broken out in America. In this voice-activated VR experience, you will drop into an Insurgent Hot Zone, interrogate the inner circle of the insurgency and decide: which side are you on?
  • 7 Lives (World Premiere) – Luxembourg, France, Belgium – An afternoon in June. Tokyo. 5 p.m. A girl jumps in front of the subway. Her soul rises from the rails. On the platform, the six people who witnessed the scene are in shock. It revived a trauma in them, painful memories they never overcame…
  • Ayahuasca (World Premiere) – France, Luxembourg, Belgium – Participants are immersed in visions triggered by a dose of ayahuasca. The spectator lives this through director Jan Kounen’s eyes as he travels on a spiritual voyage.
  • Bonfire (World Premiere) – USA – Nice job. You’ve crashed your spaceship into an alien jungle. Your instincts, nourishment cylinders, and a wary robot sidekick are all you have for survival… or so you think. With Ali Wong.
  • Cave (US Premiere) – USA – Cave is a coming-of-age story told through cutting edge Parallux technology, featuring a fully immersive holographic VR experience that can be shared by many audience members at once.
  • Children Do Not Play War (World Premiere) – Uganda, Brazil, USA – Children Do Not Play War is a cinematic VR tale of the war in Uganda told through the eyes of a young girl.
  • Common Ground (World Premiere) – UK – Explore the notorious Aylesbury Estate, concrete monument to the history and legacy of social housing in the UK, and home to a community affected by forces beyond their control.
  • Doctor Who: The Runaway (World Premiere) – UK – Step inside the TARDIS with the Doctor in this beautiful, animated, interactive story from the Doctor Who team. With Jodie Whittaker, Richard Elfyn.
  • A Drop in the Ocean (World Premiere) – UK, France, USA – Discover a miniature universe at the heart of our survival. Become part of a Social VR adventure through the ocean food chain, to reveal a crisis of our making.
  • Ello (World Premiere) – China – Ello is a sweet story about loneliness and friendship. When people expect friendship or love, proactively pursuing rather than passively waiting might lead to a surprising end.
  • Gymnasia (World Premiere) – Canada – Step into a dream, where the ghostly ephemera of a lost childhood await you.
  • Into the Light (New York Premiere) – USA – Ascend Spring Studios and move through the movements of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor,” performed by the legendary Yo-Yo Ma.
  • Stealing Ur Feelings (World Premiere) – USA – Stealing Ur Feelings is an AR experience about the power of facial emotion recognition AI that exploits your reaction to its own content in horrifying ways.
  • Unceded Territories (World Premiere) – Canada/USA – Through infectious interaction, build a natural world made up of the colorful, surrealist art of acclaimed First Nations painter Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, until you are confronted by Colonialist Snake who forces you to see the truth behind your actions.
  • War Remains (World Premiere) – USA – Podcast legend Dan Carlin employs the unique power of virtual reality to transport audiences into the most extreme battlefield in history—the Western Front of The First World War.
  • Where There’s Smoke (World Premiere) – USA – Where There’s Smoke mixes documentary, immersive theater, and an escape room to explore memory and loss. Set within the aftermath of a blaze, participants race to determine the cause of a tragic fire by sifting through the charred remains.
  • Wolves in the Walls: It’s All Over (World Premiere) – USA – Transport into the magic of VR cinema, where only you can help Lucy discover what’s truly hiding inside the walls of her house. With Jeffrey Wright, Noah Schnapp, Elizabeth Carena, Cadence Goblirsch

STORYSCAPES

The Storyscapes Award, recognizes groundbreaking approaches in storytelling and technology.

  • Another Dream (حلم آخر) (World Premiere) – Netherlands, USA, Egypt – Another Dream brings to life the gripping, true story of an Egyptian lesbian couple. Faced with a post-Revolution backlash against their community, they must choose between love and home.
  • The Collider (North American Premiere) – UK – Enter The Collider, a machine built to decipher the mysteries of human relationships. The Collider is an immersive virtual and theatrical experience exploring power, dependency, and the space between people.
  • Future Dreaming (World Premiere) – Australia – Step into a time-warping dream bubble as four young Aboriginal Australians approach their futures. Be ready for an intergalactic adventure. Look out for the space emus!
  • The Key (World Premiere) – USA, Iraq – An interactive VR experience taking the viewer on a journey through memories. Will they be able to unlock the mystery behind the mysterious Key without sacrificing too much?
  • Traitor (World Premiere) – UK – Eight hours ago, teenager Emma McCoy vanished. All she left behind was a game. Now it’s the viewer’s job to find her.
Another Dream
Image: Another Dream

The Tribeca Cinema360 will feature the following lineup:

Change is Gonna Come

  • 12 Seconds of Gunfire: The True Story of a School Shooting (World Premiere) – USA – After a gunman shoots her best friend on the playground, a first-grade girl confronts a journey of trauma and loss after the Townville, South Carolina, school shooting.
  • Ashe ’68 (New York Premiere) – USA – Arthur Ashe emerged as an elite athlete who parlayed his fame as the first black man to win the US Open tennis championship into a lifetime devoted to fighting injustice.
  • Accused No. 2: Walter Sisalu (North American Premiere) – France – A trove of 256 hours of sound archives of the Rivonia trial bring back to life the political battle waged by Nelson Mandela and his seven co-defendants against apartheid. This film looks at one of them in particular: Accused No. 2, Walter Sisulu.

Go Team!

  • 11.11.18 (World Premiere) – Belgium, France – A few minutes before the suspension of fighting in World War on November 11, 1918, soldiers have to face a series of decisions.
  • Space Buddies (World Premiere) – USA – It takes a special team of astronauts to survive the voyage to Mars without going insane. This crew will be lucky to make it past launch.
  • Mr. Buddha (董仔的人) (International Premiere) – Taiwan R.O.C. – The short crime story takes place in a car, following Dong-Tzu, Ching-Tsai, and Ni-Sang, who get their hands on a valuable antique only to have the fruits of their labor shared with the newcomer, A-Che.

Her Truth, Her Power

  • Mercy (New York Premiere) – USA, Cameroon – Edith, a 14-year-old from Cameroon, journeys through the jungle seeking life-transforming surgery to remove a tumor on her jaw.
  • Girl Icon (New York Premiere) – USA, India – Globally, over 130 million girls do not go to school. Step into the life of one girl from India who is inspired by Malala Yousafzai to change her course.
  • Children Do Not Play War (World Premiere) – Uganda, Brazil, USA – Children Do Not Play War is a cinematic VR tale of the war in Uganda told through the eyes of a young girl. Also playing in the Virtual Arcade.

Such Sweet Sorrow

  • Armonia (World Premiere) – USA – Armonia takes the ride of the dynamic original piano concerto “Armonia Degli Uccelli,” and marries it to a universally accessible animation, to produce a uniquely layered spectacle of spatial storytelling.
  • Dreams of The Jaguar’s Daughter (World Premiere) – USA, Mexico – Dreams Of The Jaguar‘s Daughter is a surreal VR documentary where Achik’, the spirit of a young Maya immigrant, guides the viewer through her memories of an arduous journey north.
  • Water Melts (World Premiere) – USA – A blue-hearted rom-com about people who are going to lose someone they love. Nobody knows what to say, so they bicker, laugh/cry, get married. It’s a romantic comedy, after all.

The Tribeca Film Festival runs between 24th April – 5th May, with Tribeca Immersive taking place from 26th April to 4th May 2019. For further info regarding what’s going on and how to buy tickets, head to the official festival website. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.