In addition to its extensive lineup of traditional motion pictures, the International Film Festival Rotterdam also boasts its unique Art Directions strand, featuring installations and other audiovisual concepts extending beyond the scope of what one might think of as a traditional festival program. This writer took a look at the five experiences that make up the Immersive Media sidebar, hosted inside WORM, Rotterdam’s center for alternative culture.
The program consists of two world premieres, one international premiere, and two Dutch premieres. A dystopian post-BREXIT UK is the setting for I’m Terribly Sorry by Rachel Maclean, who is also the subject of one of IFFR’s Focus programs (her short film DUCK played in this section). Behind that most British of phrases lies a gloomy, rainy urban milieu in which the viewer is constantly accosted by people – who have screens for heads – asking for a favor.
The controller is in the shape of a smartphone within the VR space, and the user is actively encouraged to take photos as the situation grows more and more surreal, until it reaches a darkly humorous conclusion that sums up the current post-Brexit climate of distrust. The one major flaw is that the experience is too short: at six minutes, it doesn’t give one enough time to fully absorb the premise before somewhat abruptly turning it on its head.
Surreal imagery is also on the menu in Tibor De Jong’s 8 miljard ikken, where weird and meandering imagery conveys the confusion of us as individuals and simultaneously makes us part of a chaotic whole. Essentially, it’s a very trippy theme park ride (the user sits down and observes passively as the virtual camera moves around, with the possibility of taking in the full 360 degrees of the surrounding environment), and feels at times like a Daft Punk video by way of Terry Gilliam. Users can choose between two versions of this experience: regular (the one reviewed here), or alternately with special live musical accompaniment by Spinvis, who scored the work.
The most powerful, and upsetting, title in the section is Small Acts of Violence, a 25-minute 360-degree experience from Belgium, created by Aay Liparoto. Housed in a smaller space inside WORM where users are invited to sit in a setting reminiscent of a child’s bedroom, the virtual world is one of overlapping stories that challenge simplistic notions regarding domestic violence by providing nuanced, but no less harrowing, meditations on the subject.
All stories are told simultaneously, and it’s up to the user to choose which to focus on by moving their head in the direction of the selected narrative. It is also possible to pause the experience by looking down for three seconds, which unlocks a safe space, while repeating the gesture resumes the story. Given the topic and originality of approach, this is the most likely to travel extensively of the Immersive Media pieces featured at this year’s festival.
The final two experiences are more akin to games, with the Luxembourgish entry The Assembly by Charlotte Bruneau requiring multiple players (although no communication occurs between them). Each player floats in a colorful space, and uses their controllers – in the shape of hands – to touch the slightly amorphous objects floating in the air. The physical contact converts these objects to sound, and the players create a musical composition. An ideal activity for the creatively minded, although the abstract setting may be off-putting for first-time VR users.
Realmbreak Hotel, which hails from the Netherlands and was created by Floris van Laethem, is kept separate from the other experiences and requires its own ticket, due to the user being asked to walk around in a space that, as per the title, replicates the interiors of a hotel. There, the protagonist is on a mission to save their brother, while the world around them takes on a nightmarish, pixelated look that comes across as a glitchy version of The Matrix.
The scenario is derivative, but the world itself is fascinating, and the experience is particularly rewarding in offering two modes to the user. In the first, as an Immersant (the version this writer tried), they actively interact with the characters and choose their own narrative path (word of caution: if you make the wrong choice, “Mother” will chew you out as the game ends); and as a Spectator, they get to observe as someone else goes through it, and also receive a behind-the-scenes peak at the technology.
