October 6, 2016 – Toronto – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab (CFC Media Lab) are pleased to present the world premiere of Invisible World: The VR Experience at the Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal. This groundbreaking virtual reality narrative short film will also screen in competition for the inaugural $10,000 Grand Prix for Innovation. Taking place at Grande Place au Complexe Desjardins, as part of the La Grande Place Virtuelle program, the interactive immersive film will screen at 12 noon each day beginning Saturday, October 8 through October 15, 2016. A mobile app and website component will launch later this fall.
Invisible World: The VR Experience is an HTC Vive experience that lets audiences explore the layered points of view of three people whose lives intersect around a child’s near-tragedy in Cambodia. The storyline moves between three points of view, across three different planes, and in a linear fashion towards the same end. Unlike most 360 videos that create a frameless experience, however, Invisible World: The VR Experience is interactive; it invites the audience to play with these cinematic planes as sculptural objects to move through, between and around.
“The evolution of Invisible World: The VR Experience as an interactive film has been an exciting experiment, with layered video screens evolving through an interactive format into a virtual reality experience,” says NFB Executive Producer David Christensen. “For film lovers, the sensation of experiencing a powerful story on screens inside a VR format is both familiar and strange, taking the frame of cinema into a new territory.”
Voiced in Khmer, English and French by actor Francois Chau (Lost, Hawaii Five-0) and the 2016 Man Booker Prize-nominated author Madeleine Thien, and helmed by creative collaborators, author and photographer Tyler Enfield, interactive artist Galen Scorer and producer Bonnie Thompson, Invisible World will screen in competition for the inaugural $10,000 Grand Prix for Innovation.
“CFC Media Lab is thrilled to premiere Invisible World: The VR Experience for Festival du nouveau cinéma audiences, who are some of the most open and adventurous media consumers and participants in Canada,” said Ana Serrano, Producer, Invisible World: The VR Experience, and CDO, CFC. “They will add to the conversation we have started with this film, which questions the primacy of VR as a medium for the literal experience.”
Co-produced by the CFC Media Lab and the NFB’s North West Studio, Invisible World: The VR Experience was created by Enfield and Scorer, with the creative and technical support of gskinner.
Producers are Bonnie Thompson (NFB) and Ana Serrano (CFC Media Lab). Executive Producers are Ana Serrano and David Christensen (NFB).
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Festival du nouveau cinéma
La Grande Place Virtuelle
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About CFC
The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is a charitable organization whose mission is to invest in and inspire the next generation of world-class Canadian content creators and entrepreneurs in the screen-based entertainment industry. A significant economic and cultural driver in Canada and beyond, CFC delivers a range of multi-disciplinary programs and initiatives in film, television, music, screen acting, and digital media, which provides industry collaborations, strategic partnerships, and business and marketplace opportunities for talent and participants. For more information, visit cfccreates.com.
About CFC Media Lab
The Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab (CFC Media Lab) is an internationally acclaimed digital media think tank and award-winning production facility. It provides a unique research, training and production environment for digital media content developers and practitioners, as well as acceleration programs and services for digital entertainment start-ups and related SMEs. Program participants have emerged as leaders in the world of digital media, producing groundbreaking projects and innovative, sustainable companies for the digital and virtual age. CFC Media Lab is funded in part by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. For more information, cfccreates.com.
About the NFB
The NFB is Canada’s public producer of award-winning creative documentaries, auteur animation, and groundbreaking interactive stories, installations and participatory experiences. NFB producers are deeply embedded in communities across the country, working with talented artists and creators in production studios from St. John’s to Vancouver, on projects that stand out for their excellence in storytelling, their innovation, and their social resonance. NFB productions have won over 5,000 awards, including 15 Canadian Screen Awards, 17 Webbys, 12 Oscars and more than 90 Genies. To access many of these works, visit NFB.ca or download the NFB’s apps for mobile devices and connected TV.