HAIFA IFF V.R A.R

International Virtual Reality Exhibition within 35th Haifa International Film Festival includes 45 VR-AR narrative films & new-media installations by Israeli & international artists, as previously presented in important
film festivals such as Venice, Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, Sheffield — all in a futuristic, post-humanistic, three-dimensional atmosphere, filled with technological advancements & unique immersive stories.

A whole area will be dedicated for VR-AR experiences meant for kids, a showcase of award-winning animations, VR films created by Israeli students & independent Israeli directors, and alongside it — a special screening area that will showcase the best short films & video art pieces, created by Israeli artists who deal with existential questions about the ever-evolving digital world.

Curator and Producer: Tal Michael Haring
Web site: https://www.haifaff.co.il/eng/Events/6915

Program 1: No Body, No pain?

The Real Thing
360 Video \\ 2018 \\ 16 Minutes \\ France
Benoit Felici + Mathias Chelebourg
Production Company: Artline Films +DVgroup + ARTE France
Around China’s largest cities, entire neighborhoods have been inspired by foreign models. The film explores the most stunning of these “fake cities”. It travels from Paris to London and Venice — without leaving China. The inhabitants of this city guide us in this parallel world, showing us the lives of people existing on the thin line between the real and the fake.

12 Seconds of Gunfire: The True Story of a School Shooting
360 Video \\ 2019 \\ 7 Minutes \\ USA
Suzette Moyer + Seth Blanchard
Production Company: The Washington Post
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.

Accused №2: Walter Sisulu
360 Video \\ 2018 \\ 14 Minutes \\ France
Nicolas Champeaux + Gilles Porte
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.

Mercy
360 Video \\ 2019 \\ 10 Minutes \\ USA, Cameroon
Armando Kirwin In Partnership with: Oculus VR for Good Creators Lab
Edith, a 14-year-old from Cameroon, journeys through the jungle seeking life-transforming surgery to remove a tumor on her jaw.

Unceeded Territories
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 6 Minutes \\ Canada
Paisley Smith
Key Collaborator: Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun
Unceded Territories is a provocative VR experience created from indigenous
artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s iconic work, engaging viewers in an interactive landscape grappling with colonialism, climate change and indigenous civil rights.

Songbird
360 Video \\ 2018 \\ 8 Minutes \\ UK, Denmark
Lucy Greenwell
Production Company: The Guardian
Songbird is a fairytale with a dark heart. You will be transported to the island of Kauai in 1984 and into a painted replica of a lush cloud forest filled with colourful birds. Here, you are invited to search for the last known , an iconic black bird with yellow leg feathers and a beautiful song, a bird whose existence has been threatened to the point of extinction.

Aftermath VR: Euromaidan
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 30 Minutes \\ Ukraine
Alexey Furman, Sergey Polezhaka
On 20 February 2014, Ukrainian government police opened fire against protesters in Independence Square, Kiev. This experience places you at the heart of the revolution.

Daughters of Chibok
Но что-то я 360 Video \\ 2019 \\ 11 Minutes \\ Nigeria
Joel Kachi Benson
Production Company: VR360 Stories
In 2014, the sleepy agrarian community of Chibok (Borno State, North East Nigeria) was thrust into the global spotlight when the dreaded terrorist group Boko Haram stormed the town at night and abducted 276 teenage schoolgirls from their dormitories. This VR deals with the aftermath of the kidnappings, and explores global issues of gender rights and the right to education.

Program 2: ARE WE ALREADY DIGITAL?

Live 3D Scanning
Performance-Art with Audience
Participation \\ Next Level Society (N.X.L.S)
Next Level Society invites you to transform your body into 3D, and your soul into digital. Using special hand-held 3D scanners, you will turn into a virtual statue and become part of an-ever expanding garden of 3D humans.

Grease: Immersive Cinema Experience in Full Volumetric Video
AR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 3 Minutes \\ USA
Production Companies: Intel Studios + Paramount Pictures
40 years after the release of Grease (1978), the blockbuster musical from Paramount Pictures, audiences are invited to immerse themselves in the iconic song and dance of “You’re the One That I Want”. This is the world’s first
volumetric Hollywood Cinema experience, produced at Intel Studios, in collaboration with Paramount Pictures and the original Grease movie director — Randal Kleiser, and it unleashes the true possibilities of volumetric storytelling!

Runnin
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 10 Minutes \\ USA
Kiira Benzing
Producers: Reggie Watts + Kiira Benzing + Sarah Vick + Dave Smiddy + Diego Prilusky + Adam Rogers
Music: Wajatta (Reggie watts + John Tejada)
Company: Intel Studios
This interactive dance experience takes the player on a journey of musical expression. Play along with the music of Wajatta in an intimate neighborhood record store and be transported to a retro-future dance party. Show off your moves on the dance floor alongside a troupe of dancers and Reggie Watts. Presented by Intel Studios.

Common Ground
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 30 Minutes \\ United Kingdom
Darren Emerson
Production Company: East City Films
Welcome to the Aylesbury Estate, home to thousands of Londoners, a concrete monument to the history and legacy of social housing in the UK, and a stark insight into the realities of gentrification and social cleansing.

Break IT — Reconstruction
360 Video \\ 2019 \\ Israel
Yonatan Manevich + Adam Havkin
Company: Scan the City Project
A VR experience where viewers are placed in a re-constructed underground
rave party from 2007, which took place in a deserted factory at 106 Yigal Alon Street in Tel-Aviv — under the party franchise “Break It”. In the experience, visitors are welcomed into a delusional, chaotic and crowded world, where the original space of 2007 rave is captured using 3D scanning techniques.

Transformation
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ Israel
Adam Havkin + Inbar Caspi
Company: Scan the City Project
In a virtual world where laws gravity no longer apply, visitors are invited to place aside what is known, and enter a VR experience that challenges their senses. In a new world constructed especially for this project, you may roam the streets of Tel-Aviv — like you’ve never seen them before. Materials for this project were created using special 3D Scanning technologies

Program 3: Ready for the Next Level?

Live Chat Room
Performance-Art with Audience Participation \\ Next Level Society (N.X.L.S)
Next Level Society invites you to join an anonymous chat room where your body disappears, your mind expands, and your soul is let loose. This audience-participation performance mixes group talks, dancing and singing, and gives you a glance into a society where “meeting the other” can be free from pre-judgmental interactions.

Interviews from the Virtual
Short Film \\ by: Syrmor
A series of documentary interviews with kids, teenagers and adults who spend their time in the open-world social app for virtual reality VRChat — which allows users to choose a 3D Avatar to represent their bodies. The interviewed tell their personal stories, in VRChat, and explain why to chose to escape the real world.

Trail of Angles
VR Interactive \\ 2018 \\ 30 Minutes \\ Lithuania + Belarus
Kristina Buozyte
Producers: Okta (Vitalijus Zukas), Natrix natrix (Kristina Buozyte), Asterman (Aleksander Podgorny)
Angelų Takais is a meditative VR animation which invites the viewer to explore a mysterious afterlife world based on Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis’ paintings and music. Starting a journey as a human being, the viewer soon realizes that he is an angel who contemplates the states of life, death and merging with the universe.

Emergence
VR Interactive \\ 2018 \\ United Kingdom
Creative Director: Matt Pyke
Developer: Chris Mullany
Sound Design: Simon Pyke
Production Company: Universal Everything
What is the relationship between the individual and the crowd? This elegantly crafted VR experience places you inside an open-world environment to explore the primal feeling of maintaining your individual identity whilst being part of the masses. Showing over five thousand intelligent human behaviors, this powerful VR experience is made possible by advanced graphics technology.

-22.7°C
360 Video \\ 2019 \\ France
Jan Kounen + Molécule + Amaury La Burthe
Alone in Greenland, electronic music producer Molécule captures the sounds of Arctic to compose his next piece. Inspired by this adventure, the -22.7°C VR experience takes you on an initiatory journey, at the very origin of musical creation.

Conscious Existence
360 Video \\ 2018 \\ 12 Minutes \\ Germany
Marc Zimmermann
Production Company: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH
We are gifted every moment with life’s most precious achievement: a conscious mind, enabling us to sense and hold within, the universe’s boundless being — a source of infinite inspiration that fuels our inner space. It is vital for a life of harmony, and enables us to sense beauty in every little thing.

Program 4: VR-AR Experiences for Kids

Art & Artificial Intelligence
NVIDIA’s new artificial intelligence project, named GauGAN, turns anyone into an expert landscape painter! Draw simple lines across the screen and watch as they turn into hills, rivers, trees and rocks!

Equator 360: The Centre of the World
360 Video \\ 2018 \\ 14 Minutes \\ Canada
+ France
Director: Nicolas Jolliet
Co-directors: Diana Rico, Richard Decaillet
Production Company: DEEP Inc. / Liquid
Cinema in association with ARTE, Discovery and NHK
The shamans of Yuruparí live directly on the equator, In the Amazonian forests in south-eastern Colombia. Their sacred sites are spread out in a network placed exactly on the equatorial line. The Yuruparí believe they live at the centre of the world, and that it is their duty to preserve the balance of the planet through their spiritual work.

Disney 360
360 Video \\ 2018 \\ USA
A selection of 360 Videos produced by Disney. You are invited to play, experience and enjoy!

Google Tilt Brush
VR Interactive \\ 2016 \\ USA
Tilt Brush lets you paint in 3D space with virtual reality. Unleash your creativity with three-dimensional brush strokes, stars, light, and even fire. Your room is your canvas. Your palette is your imagination. The possibilities are endless.

Age of Sail
360 Video \\ 2018 \\ USA
John Kahrs
Production Company: Google Spotlight Stories
Age of Sail VR is the story of William Avery, an old sailor adrift and alone in the North Atlantic. When Avery rescues Lara, who has mysteriously fallen overboard, he finds redemption and hope in his darkest hours.

Aripi/Wings
360 Video \\ 2019 \\ 7 Minutes \\ Moldova
Dmitri Voloshin
Production Company: Simplas
A story about an astronaut who, as a child, always dreamed of flying and being free. But now, when he’s finally able to roam the skies — he’s sadly confined to a small capsule in the spacecraft. One day, troubles arise, causing the spaceship to lose control and dive into Earth. Now this astronaut will once again be able to spread his wing

Program 5: Award-Winning Experiences

Gloomy Eyes
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 15 Minutes \\ France + Argentina + USA + Taiwan
Jorge Tereso + Fernando Maldonado
Production Company: Atlas V
When the sun got tired of the humans it decided to hide and never rise again. The darkness awoke the dead from their graves. A zombie kid called Gloomy and a mortal girl called Nena fall in love and immerse in a deep connection that not even the most powerful man in town can destroy. Narrated by Colin Farrell (English Version).

Bonfire
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 20 Minutes \\ USA
Eric Darnell
Production Company: Baobab Studios
Nice job. You’ve failed your mission to save humanity and, instead, crashed your spaceship into a dark alien jungle. Your only light source is a feeble, fading bonfire. Your instincts, your nourishment cylinders and a wary robot sidekick are all you have for survival… or so you think.

The Key
VR Interactive + Immersive Theater \\ 2019 \\ 16 Minutes \\ USA
Celine Tricart
Production Company: Lucid Dreams Productions
“THE KEY” is a mostly narrative VR experience. It has a strong story structure punctuated by moments of interactivity.
The participant goes on a journey exploring dreams, and must face challenges and difficult decisions in each, experiencing loss. The participant will experience a metaphorical journey from danger to safety. Through this journey a hidden truth is uncovered, and a new beauty revealed.

Program 6: Musrara School of Arts Presents

Vortal 2
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 8 Minutes \\ Israel
Amos Peled
New Media Department, Musrara School of Art
A roaming journey in “other” spaces, comprises of 5 rooms — each room has a unique sound piece with a unique set of rules (movement, color, feeling). By drawing you into a deepened existence and forcing you to act by a new set of rules — a subversion of the known senses reality occurs, and viewers may be open to acknowledging that multiple consciousness can exist in the world.

What Was Was Was
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 7 Minutes \\ Israel
Tom Maor
New Media Department, Musrara School of Art
In a world filled with screens and masks, you are about to become a digital sacrifice.

Kandinsky VR
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 9 Minutes \\ Israel
Tania Shraifel
New Media Department, Musrara School of Art
Enter a world of 3D paintings that come alive, influenced by the famous artist — Wassily Kandinsky.

Beat Knesset
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 8 Minutes \\ Israel
Shem Barel
New Media Department, Musrara School of Art
Under the ground, in an imaginated old temple, lays a stage with god’s holy name shining in pink neon lights. Get on stage and become the holiest DJ that ever existed.

Program 7: IDC Hertzilya Presents

SEAitVR
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 1 Minute \\ Israel
Jessie Cohen + Naomi Astruc + Nathaniel Mayberg
IDC Herzliya + MAYCORP
An immersive experience that explores a polluted ocean bed, and which allows you to empathize with the state of our oceans. Use your hands to swim and look around. It’s a beautiful world underwater.

Voices
360 Video \\ 2019 \\ 7 Minutes \\ Israel
Sharon Schwartz + Adi Lander + Amit
Turescki
The Content Hub + School of Communications, IDC Herzliya
An innovative documentary that combines animated virtual reality technology with 360-degree video. The viewers get a glimpse into Ziv’s head — a schizophrenic who manages to cope with the symptoms in a unique way.

The Rape Drug VR
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 4 Minutes \\ Israel
Gal Bahar + Avia Deri + Chaim Elimelech
+ Ben Rizenberg
IDC Herzliya
This 360 interactive film places you in a situation where a woman in a bar drinks a drink with a rape drug in it. She is then taken by a guy — without any control over her behavior.

ME
360 Video \\ 2019 \\ 21 Minutes \\ Israel
Shani Elias
IDC Herzliya
My ADHD disorder has an affect not only on my personal life, but also on my
environment, my studies, my dreams. I feel the difficulty of society to accept my unique behavior, and the difficulty of people around me to accept my objective hardships stemming from this disorder. This is a glimpse into my world.

Program 8: Short Story in VR

TLV Sidewalk View
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 15 Minutes \\ Israel
Amir Feldman
Production Company: Hamatpera
Best vintage cloths in Tel Aviv! Beach
fitness classes! Best showers!
TLV SIDEWALK VIEW is an interactive documentary, an alternative tourism and lifestyle guide, presented by homeless people living in the streets of Tel-Aviv. In this guide, the homeless people give the recommendations and tips. The viewer, the tourist, is exposed to the city from their point of view. Melting the two worlds together — the tourism & leisure world with the homeless way of life — creates a new and critical perspective on our society.

The Monument
360 Video \\ 2019 \\ 15 Minutes \\ Israel
Eran Shapira
Script & Research: Eliya Natalya Eizerikova + Eran Shapira
The Monument is a VR documentary that will take us to a magnificent tour inside Semyon’s life and dreams. Semyon, a 90-year-old engineer and inventor from Yeruham has a dream — at the entrance to Yeruham, he wants to build a colorful monument surrounded by lilac flowers in memory of the victory of the Red Army against the Nazis.

Battle Hymn
360 Video \\ 2019 \\ 11 Minutes \\ Israel
Yair Agmon
Production Company: Yalla Films
Every night, hundreds of IDF soldiers go on dozens of arrest missions in Palestinian villages in the West Bank. The film “Battle Hymn” gives its viewers a one-time peak into this ‘routine’ IDF fundamental experience, where manliness and shame, strength and weakness, lowliness and power, combine. In doing so, the film tells a tale, both realistic and surreal, of this crazy and sad place that I call home.

Program 9: Additional Israeli Experiences

Fragments of Jerusalem
360 Video \\ 2019 \\ 18 Minutes \\ Israel + Canada
Michal Conford + Dean Gold + Brendan Mills
Production Company: Outermost Pictures
FRAGMENTS OF JERUSALEM is a deeply human dive into the beating heart of the beautiful and marvelous and often maddening city of Jerusalem. Transporting viewers to the most intimate spaces of people from all walks of life, the spirit of this contested city is explored without borders.

Invasive Ideas Museum
360 Video \\ 2019 \\ 10 Minutes \\ Israel
Ora Ruven
The museum suggests — treating humans as an invasive species. The species are realistic and inventive. Ideum Propagate is a self-propagating insight that invades sharp Alpha Homo Sapiens brains. The Homo/Femina Sapiens propagate the Insight through communication to their own kind of Sapiens, leading them to invade new spheres — real or spiritual.

Aharon Man VR
VR Interactive \\ 2019 \\ 10 Minutes \\ Israel
Asaf & Eyal Geva
Production Company: Peanut Button + United King Films
Get inside the world of the action-comedy film “Mossad”, and play as agent Aharon (Tal Friedman), after he becomes a superhero at the service of the Mossad - Aharon Man! You’ll be briefed by agent Guy (Tzachi Halevy) so you can perform a top-secret mission that includes killing bad guys, stopping missiles with your hands, and most importantly — disco dancing.

More about the venue and where to watch which program: