Created in collaboration with Kaleidoscope, the National Film Board of Canada, Canada Media Fund, Creative BC, and the British Columbia Arts Council, the Canadian Collection was designed to reimagine the selected artworks and share stories behind the projects. A spatial arrangement of nine curated immersive experiences, brought for the first time together under one roof, enables users to read these virtual stories in a holistic way, and shines a new light on the ambitions and visions of Canadian creators. The first chapter of the showcase was available from December 17, 2021, and will continue until March 11, 2022. The second chapter runs from February 4 to April 29, 2022.
LINE-UP - December 17, 2021 to March 11, 2022
Biidaaban: First Light
Lisa Jackson, Mathew Borrett, Jam3 and the National Film Board of Canada
Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square is flooded. Its infrastructure has merged with the local fauna; mature trees grow through cracks in the sidewalks and vines cover south-facing walls. People commute via canoe and grow vegetables on skyscraper roofs. Urban life is thriving.Rooted in the realm of Indigenous futurism, Biidaaban: First Light is an interactive VR time-jump into a highly realistic—and radically different—Toronto of tomorrow. As users explore this altered city now reclaimed by nature, they must think about their place in history and ultimately their role in the future.
Hiraeth
Yao Wang (Director & Composer), Sherry Li (Director & Composer), Chuantao Xu (Lead Artist), Sijia Zhai (Artist & Developer)
Hiraeth is a hand-drawn immersive experience about a journey into one’s imagined ancestral land. It tells the universal story of someone who has lost touch with their culture of origin, who wants to understand where they came from.
Homestay
Paisley Smith, Jam3 and the NFB Digital Studio
Every year, Canada receives hundreds of thousands of students from around the world. To make the most of their Canadian experience, many opt to live with a host family. Homestay is one family’s story of life with international students—a look at how complete immersion in another culture can create a clash of expectations and change our understanding of family, hospitality, nationality, and love.
Unceded Territories
Paisley Smith, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun
Unceded Territories is a provocative VR experience created from indigenous artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s iconic work, engaging viewers in an interactive landscape grappling with colonialism, climate change and indigenous civil rights.
The Book of Distance
Written and Created by Randall Okita
Produced by David Oppenheim (NFB)
In 1935, Yonezo Okita left his home in Hiroshima, Japan, and began a new life in Canada. Then war and state-sanctioned racism changed everything—he became the enemy. Three generations later, his grandson, artist Randall Okita, leads us on an interactive virtual pilgrimage through an emotional geography of immigration and family to recover what was lost.
LINE-UP - February 4 to April 29, 2022
The Passengers: Her & Him
Ziad Touma
The Passengers is the story of four passengers who do not know each other, traveling together in a train, all facing a pivotal moment in their lives. Enter the thoughts of one character at a time to hear their inner voice, to see their memories, and live their emotions. The viewer can change the course and outcome of the story with a gaze, by speaking out loud, or by making gestures to help the passenger on their quest.
Manic VR
Kalina Bertin, Sandra Rodriguez, Nicolas S. Roy, Fred Casia
Explore the exuberant and chaotic worlds of an imagination haunted by bipolar disorder. Guided by the compelling voices of Felicia and François who, for the past 3 years, have used their sister’s voice mail as their personal diary, the user will embark on a journey to decipher the whirlwind cycling of mania, psychosis and depression. Through room-scale, real-time interaction and 3D animation, we discover the destabilizing effects of bipolarity – the heightening of senses and the untamed imagination that accompanies this complex and mysterious condition.
The Golden Glove VR
Fatih Akin
Attempt to escape the wrath of Fritz Honka from within photo-realistic recreations of environments pulled directly from the film. Using cutting edge scanning technology, actual sets and props are brought into the virtual realm, allowing the user to interact and explore. Enter the nightmare world of one of Hamburg’s most infamous serial killers, Fritz Honka; in this virtual reality experience in support of the new film by Fatih Akin, Der Goldene Handschuh.
Agence
Created by Pietro Gagliano
Produced by Casey Blustein (Transitional Forms) and David Oppenheim (NFB)
Would you interfere with intelligent life? Agence is an interactive experience that places the fate of artificially intelligent creatures in your hands. In their simulated universe, you have the power to observe, and to interfere. Maintain the balance of their peaceful existence or throw them into a state of chaos as you move from planet to planet. Watch closely and you’ll see them react to each other and their emerging world. Once you meet the Agents, their story will never be the same.
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The Canadian Collection received support from Creative BC Fund and Canada Media Fund. It will be available free of charge for virtual reality users visiting the MOR through Steam, Viveport, and Oculus Store.
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