Cinema beyond the screen

Thanks to new technologies such as augmented or virtual reality, today the audience not only sees films but also experiences them as if they were part of them. To give visibility to this trend, IDEAL, the Centre of Digital Arts in Barcelona, is hosting XRdocs, the first festival in the world dedicated to immersive documentary film. For this edition, which will take place on Tuesday 14th December, five award-winning works have been selected from the most prestigious film festivals around the world. In addition, the screening will be followed by exclusive interviews with the people who have created the short films in the exhibition.

The first of these pieces, Ferenj: A Graphic Memoir in VR, is the debut film by director Ainslee Robson. It deals with sexual identity, ethnicity and migration, and is based on her personal experiences. It is followed by Cruzar, by Juan Pablo Urgilés, a work that uses virtual reality and 360º video to tell the story of Agny, a Venezuelan woman who must cross several cities in Ecuador to work and earn enough money to be able to recover her children.

Another fascinating story to be enjoyed at XRdocs is Missing Pictures, a series by Clément Deneux about great films that were never made. In the first episode, which will be screened at the festival, Deneux talks to film director Abel Ferrara to reveal why Birds of Prey, his dream film, was never made. Following the screening, festival-goers can enjoy Joel Kachi Benson's Noah's Raft. The short film tells the exciting story of Noah, a man who returns to his hometown to change the lives of the children who live there through education. As a culmination to this experience, Rebuilding Notre Dame, by Chloé Rochereuil, will show for the first time the before, after and restoration process of the Parisian cathedral after its fire in 2019.

For more information and bookings, click here.