Francis Williams of the Naygayiw Gigi Dance Troupe in a scene from ‘Carriberrie’. (Photo: Josh Flavell)
The Byron Bay Film Festival will once again present an Australian contingent of 360° VR works at this year’s Cannes’ Next, the innovation hub of the festival’s market, Marché du Film.
This is the second year that BBFF director J’aimee Skippon-Volke has curated the session – titled Australian Immersion – at Next.
“Last year just one of the directors in Australian Immersion joined me, but it’s likely that this year all four experiences will have a team member there,” she says.
“ProxiVR’s Harrison Norris, who attended in 2017, walked away with a distribution deal and a spotlight at Fantasia International Film Festival – the largest and most influential genre film festival in the world. I am confident that opportunities will arise for those joining us this year.”
Among the works to screen is Reddogs VR and director Dominic Allen’s doco Carriberrie, a VR exploration of Indigenous dance and song from across the country from Uluru to the Opera House, guided by David Gulpilil.
Two of the projects to also be showcased were commissioned via SBS and Screen Queensland’s Untold Stories initiative: Bunya Productions’ Every King Tide, directed by Aaron Fa’Aoso and Craig Deeker, which highlights the impact of rising sea levels on the people of Poruma Island in the Torres Strait, and Lucas Taylor’s Inside Manus, which uses graphic novel style 3D animations to bring the Manus Island detention centre to life and tells the stories of three detainees.
Produced by Hoodlum, Inside Manus won Best Interactive Production at last year’s SPA Awards, and has screened at MIFF, Byron Bay Film Festival and International Documentary Film Festival.
The session will close with director and Studiobento co-founder Lester Francois’ Rone, which follows the Melbourne street artist by the same name, which has screened at MIFF and SXSW.
Skippon-Volke is presenting the session in conjunction with her company Collective Reality, and will be travelling to the market with some projects of her own, both finished and in development.
After Cannes, she will moderate a panel at Amsterdam’s VRX Europe with VR experts and department heads from France Televisions, ARTE and the BBC.
Rone, Inside Manus and Carriberrie are also at Gold Coast Film Festival’s VR Showcase April 28-29, a strand run in partnership with the BBFF.