DIGITAL STORIES LAB is a Central European meeting of artists and professionals of new forms of audio-visual storytelling. The event will be held during the oldest human rights film festival in Poland, Watch Docs IFF, one of the two largest film events of such kind dedicated to human rights in the world and will focus on projects which use digital media to document challenges facing Europe today.
”Transmedia, interaction, immersion” interactive cinema screenings, accompanying the Lab, will open the Watch Docs film festival on December 7 and continue on the following evening. Viewers will experience how interactive film or virtual reality (VR) can be used to present challenges facing the world today.
How does technology impact storytelling? Generations of documentary makers explore ways of engaging audiences in stories they tell and facilitating their identification with the fate of the protagonists. Digital media brought about a new form of story participation. Virtual reality (VR) allows for an almost tangible experiencing of presented sites and situations. Through social media, anyone can create content. In interactive storytelling, viewers can experience consequences of their own decisions. However, will new technologies allow us to better understand others? VR goggles are referred to as “empathy machines” – but is it really the case?
The two evenings will be attended by creators from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Slovakia and Poland, who tackle contemporary conflicts using Snapchat, smartphones and documentary games. Through the use of interactive media they present a day in the life of a refugee camp resident and resurrect Aleppo in virtual reality. Even though these stories are created with the intent of a single viewer accessing them through a smartphone or laptop, during the two festival evenings they will become a collective experience and watched on the big screen.
Screenings are held as part of WATCH DOCS international film festival and are part of DIGITAL STORIES LAB - MEDIA & DEMOCRACY, organised by Total Immersion Foundation and Udyssey Creative Technologies.
The event is organised in collaboration with the British Council in the frame of “Creativity Talks”.
British Council is a partner of the event.
Language: English
For more information go to: http://totalimmersion.rocks/dsl/screenings/ and Facebook