Shaun Gladwell and Leo Faber, co-founders of Badfaith.
Producer Leo Faber and mixed media artist Shaun Gladwell have founded Badfaith, a new VR collective with members based out of Australia, London and Los Angeles.
Its first project, Gladwell’s Orbital Vanitas, had its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival over the weekend. The six minute VR experience, which places the viewer in the Earth’s orbit, will continue to screen at Sundance this week as part of the New Frontier Showcase. The project is said to set the tone for Badfaith's future endeavours and ethos, which "prioritises creative over the commercial.”
As well as Gladwell (The Lacrima Chair, Apology to Roadkill) and Faber, Badfaith consists of video artist Daniel Crooks (Hamilton’s Path, So Long As You Move), writer-director Natasha Pincus (Love’s Labour, Arietta), Amiel Courtin-Wilson (Hail, Ruin) and Luci Schroder (Slapper, Nick Knight’s ‘Fashion Fetish), Indigenous artist Tony Albert (Unalienable, Brothers) and AR specialist and neuro-researcher Dr Jordan Nguyen.
Gladwell, Faber and Schroder are all currently in the States representing Badfaith at Sundance. Schroder’s short film Slapper is also screening in competition.
Badfaith also has a number of upcoming projects in production, including the VR documentary Storm Rider. The doco, which focuses on a young Muslim woman from London’s East End, is the first VR project that Screen Australia has funded. It also has support from SBS.
“People will look back at this time as a time of great creative change due to VR and hopefully the work we do to challenge what’s possible,” said Faber.