The theme of the virtual reality unit of the 11th Beijing International Film Festival is "Between Spaces", which selects the world's most important virtual reality and mixed reality works in recent years, and explores the spatial presentation and interpretation brought by VR. The three units are named after a single Chinese character, back-to-the-same, and the Chinese characters are returned to shape, structure, and pictographic symbols.
Back-to-the-same-ask, containing 14 works, from closed loop to open, from contemplation to initiative, "small virtual" to "big reality" continue to emerge, expanding the world with horizons, and any door between multiple spaces is opening:
01
Back to Encircled
Back, a boxed form that builds a virtual boundary in reality. A new reality of screens for the experiencer to see, listen to, and feel. This section includes 360 video and virtual spaces, starting from literature, film, architecture, and viewing artistic textures through VR media.
"Change"
REPLACEMENTS
Japan, Germany, Indonesia / 2020 / 12 minutes / No dialogue
Features: Urban change animation, using a family as a portal to watch the great changes from village to city in the past 40 years.
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Trailer for "Change"
Description: Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, a Javanese family has changed times. They witnessed the urban, environmental, political and cultural changes that Jakarta underwent from 1980 to 2020, reading and reflecting on Jakarta's recent history through the lens of an ordinary family.
Blind Girl
BLIND VAYSHA VR
Canada/2016/10 minutes/English
Features: 180 degree animation, presenting an unconventional 3D combination screen in 3D.
Trailer for Blind Girl
Vaysha is different from other girls in that her left eye can only see the past, and her right eye can only see the future, and she cannot live in the present. Should she poke one eye and thus live in the time reality of one eye? Or is she destined to perceive the world from a confusing perspective?
2021: A Space Odyssey
ODYSSEY 1.4.9
France/2019/8 min./no dialogue
Features: An amazing VR tour that pays homage to the secrets behind Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece.
Trailer for 2021: A Space Odyssey
In 1965, Kubrick directed 2001: A Space Odyssey, which transformed the film into a mysterious treasure hunt that reveals the malleability and complexity of the theme of "becoming human." "2021: A Space Odyssey" strives to return to the heart of the film, using a fully immersive look and feel, beyond the virtual reality experience of space travel, to illustrate the landmark meaning of Kubrick's film.
Entropy Change
Recoding Entropia
France/2020/8 min./no dialogue
Features: Experience pure abstraction in the virtual.
Stills from Entropy Change
Description: A metal tetrahedron floats in a milky abyss. Everything was calm—until this geometric form was suddenly deconstructed and atomized into billions of pieces. Through purely abstract forms and movements, Entropy Challenges the viewer's place in the universe, offering an immersive journey to explore the mysteries of extinction and rebirth.
"The End"
Terminus
Australia/2019/30 minutes (5 parts)/no dialogue
Features: A mysterious alien architectural universe filled with humanoid clones and mysterious symbols.
Trailer for The End
Synopsis: The End presents an exploration of the experiencer's own choice, venturing into a mysterious universe and entering an alien building full of clones and mysterious symbols. Time and space slip through time, journeys through five different kingdoms, and everything in front of us tells us that reality is not fixed, but malleable and multifaceted.
"Shhh"
HUSH
Denmark / 2020 / 10 minutes / no dialogue
Features: A sound-led VR experience that is summoned into the Nordic ocean peoples' legends.
Stills from "Shhh"
Description: The work is derived from the Nordic myth of the mermaid, the mermaid lures sailors in order to suck their souls into the sea. The experiencer stands by the sea, listening to the call from the sea, and the world around them gradually dissipates... Immersed in the fascinating underwater world, the boundaries between man and nature, reality and imagination have disappeared.
02
With Enchanted
In the same way, knock on the border of reality and open the door across reality. Through symmetry, mirroring, contrast, dislocation, virtual and real, ancient and modern, new and old, from trance to identity. This part is a variety of interactive works, through displacement, voice, touch, etc., vr as a means to feel the cultural atmosphere.
The Executioner in the House
The Hangman at Home
Denmark, France, Canada / 2020 / 25 minutes / English
Features: Interactive animation that explores awkward intimacy between humans. Best VR in Venice 2020
Stills from The Executioner in the House
Synopsis: The Executioner in the Home is an interactive animation experience that explores awkward intimacy between humans. Five intertwined stories are told: each scene presents the presence of a person, or someone in some delicate moment. In these moments, we are all so similar.
The Kusonda Language
Kusunda
Germany, Nepal / 2020 / 23 mins / Kussonda, English
Features: Live-action + animation, sound interaction, participation in the retention of languages that are about to disappear.
Trailer for Kusonda
Description: Kusonda is an interactive virtual reality experience. The work explores how a language is in decline and how it can be revived. Lil Bahadur, a Kusunda monk, gradually forgotten his mother tongue, and his granddaughter Hima was determined to revive it.
Gravity
Gravity VR
Brazil, Peru / 2020 / 15 minutes / English
Features: Interactive animation, choose different life concepts under the guidance of life fables.
Trailer for Gravity
Synopsis: Gravity is a wild journey through the chaotic world. During the experience, follow the last moments of the two brothers and fall freely for 15 minutes. There is no ground beneath your feet, just an exciting journey in a surreal universe. It's a parable and an interactive experience.
"Falling Up"
MARCO & POLO GO ROUND
Belgium, Canada/2021/12 min./English
Features: Enter the world of David Hockney-style oil painting in a way that is only visible in VR.
Trailer for "Falling Up"
Description: A romantic comedy with surrealist overtones. On the morning of his birthday, Marco wakes up to find that everything in the kitchen is tied up with tape and hemp rope, and a storm is coming. With the quarrel of the partner, the world is turned upside down.
Dawn of Art
The Dawn of Art
France/2020/10 min/English
Features: Enter the 30,000-year-old Chauvet Caves in France, where VR meets the oldest immersive art
Stills from Dawn of Art
Synopsis: Dawn of Art combines an immersive film with a virtual Visit to the Shawey Caves, inviting experiencers to search for prehistoric ancestors and join the first humans to venture deep into the underworld in search of traces of their caves. Across time and space, immerse yourself in the artistic creation of the cave with artists from tens of thousands of years ago.
03
Ask For Encounter
Ask, a little escape from the virtual. Through passionate questioning and dialogue, a sentient relationship is established that crosses categories, times and media. This section is a groundbreaking and experimental mixed reality work that "redirects and walks" in the field of reinterpreting art history classics, from the black box to the clear sky of early autumn in Beijing.
VR Corridor
Live-VR Corridor
USA/2017/5 min/English
Features: VR installation works, thinking about VR in the history of contemporary art in video installations.
Trailer for VR Corridor
Introduction: Virtual reality art has multiple histories, continuing the tradition of perceptuality and embodiment in film, video art, and installation art. Based on a historical review, VR Corridor replicates Bruce Nauman's 1970 Live-Taped Video Corridor (1970), one of the earliest video installations. VR offers a unique visual form that reactivates the pleasure of seeing and being seen.
The Reverie of the Sleeping God
Hypnosis：Reveries
China / 2021 / 20 minutes / No dialogue
Features: Redirect walking experience, constantly advancing in 50 square meters of space, constantly discovering.
Trailer for "Sleeping Reverie"
Introduction: Every year, countless young people come to the big city with dreams, which is where their spiritual sustenance and hope for changing their destiny lie. While looking up at this city, it is also denied and shaken by it. "The Reverie of the Sleeping God" is the product of the collision of dreams and reality, and the experiencer will enter a spiritual labyrinth, revisiting the depths of memory and looking back at the important moments that have changed us.
"The Walking Central Axis: A View of Parallel Time and Space"
China/2021/60 min/Chinese
Features: Sound landscape works, walking experience in Yongdingmen Park.
Trailer for "The Walking Central Axis"
Description: Immersive Urban Roaming Sound Theater. Putting on their headphones, participants set off from the Yongdingmen City Tower and walk through the central axis corridor to embark on an immersive walk around the architecture and culture of the South Central Axis. Integrating elements such as sound guidance, visual experience, role play, interactive participation, and oral history, the audience is invited to complete the immersive experience from the visual, auditory, tactile, and multi-sensory dimensions.