Thank you for being part our 49th online edition!
The Festival du nouveau cinéma de Montréal (FNC) is pleased to unveil its programming for FNC EXPLORE, presented by Viveport. For the eleventh year running, festivalgoers are invited to discover narrative and immersive content as exciting as it is innovative through a section dedicated entirely to new media works.
The Festival du nouveau cinéma de Montréal (FNC) is pleased to unveil its programming for FNC EXPLORE, presented by HTC Vive's Viveport. For the eleventh year running, festivalgoers are invited to discover narrative and immersive content as exciting as it is innovative through a section dedicated entirely to new media works. On the program of this sensory extravaganza: interactive films, immersive content and two competitive categories for VR works. Rounding off the experience will be a performance and master class that takes viewers to the heart of the creative process. Best of all, the full FNC EXPLORE program will be available online across Canada this year through the Viveport platform.
“HTC VIVE is proud to be the platform partner to host the festival’s curated selection of virtual reality experiences and 360 films on Viveport, so the global audience can enjoy the incredible creativity exhibited by FNC from the comfort and safety of their homes, for the first time.”– Pearly Chen, VP of Business Development, Viveport
This year’s FNC EXPLORE offers two free online events that can be accessed through the Festival’s social media platforms.
Animation virtuosi MICHELLE and URI KRANOT, whose approach transcends traditional animation to fuse painting, drawing and new technologies into contemporary experiences, will host a virtual master class. Their work is characterized by its poetic sensibility and fragmented narratives that straddle past and present, fact and fiction. Viewers can also appreciate their mastery in THE HANGMAN AT HOME - VR, freshly awarded the Grand Jury Prize for best VR immersive work at the 77th Venice Biennale, which will be presented in competition at FNC EXPLORE.
Then, making its North American premiere, MOTTO LIVE, a performance inspired by the interactive experience Motto.io, will be broadcast livefrom Vincent Morisset’s studio and a handful of streets in Montreal’s Petite-Patrie neighbourhood. Actress Marie Brassard and author Sean Michaels will narrate. Composed of thousands of tiny videos, Motto.io moves fluidly between documentary and fiction, incorporating participants’ lo-fi, unstaged footage into its own emotional narrative. Neither book nor film, it’s a mind-bending ghost story that takes shape through people’s unique perspectives on the world. MOTTO LIVE is an AATOAA production based on the work Motto.io, created by AATOAA and produced by the NFB.
For over ten years now, FNC EXPLORE has given pride of place to new media while building bridges with traditional cinema. The works in competition this year uphold the unique cinematic slant and avant-garde narratives that make the programming of FNC EXPLORE so strong and singular. From director Abel Ferrara in MISSING PICTURES: BIRDS OF PREY to actress Zita Hanrot in MIRROR: THE SIGNAL, this embrace of traditional film includes welcoming filmmakers of such calibre as Michelle and Uri Kranot or even Qiu Yang (Palme d'Or for best short film at the 70th Cannes Film Festival) with O, his first-ever VR work.We’re also pleased to point up the strong showing of home-grown artists. This year’s FNC EXPLORE features five Canadian productions or co-productions (AGENCE, THE BOOK OF DISTANCE, AU PAYS DU CANCRE MOU [IN THE LAND OF THE FLABBY SCHNOOK]), LES PASSAGERS: ELLE & LUI, THE HANGMAN AT HOME - VR), including one work from Quebec (AU PAYS DU CANCRE MOU) and three from the National Film Board of Canada (AGENCE, THE BOOK OF DISTANCE and THE HANGMAN AT HOME - VR).The selected works will screen in two distinct competitions: HORIZON for6DoF (“six degrees of freedom”) works,and PANORAMA 360 for works of virtual reality in 3D. The jury will be composed of Victoire Thevenin (director, VR Arles Festival), Annick Blanc (producer/director at Midi La Nuit) and Charlotte Corchete (Pardi di domani competition programmer, Locarno Film Festival).
Agence places the fate of artificially intelligent creatures in your hands—will you maintain their peaceful existence, or throw them into a state of chaos?AN ODE TO MOSS (Taïwan)Directed by SU Produced by HTC VIVE ORIGINALS
The source burns, radiating crimson scorching air that forbids human survival. Through the crushing density of time, the shortness of life resembles the first sound at birth and the last sentence before departing the world.
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.
Follow the memories of the now grown-up Yuri, a Korean woman, and take part in her incredible adventure in the most dangerous, yet beautiful, area of the planet: the demilitarized zone between the 2 Koreas.
“What does the hangman think about when he goes home at night from work?” Inspired by the iconic Carl Sandburg poem (1922), the experience explores themes of acknowledgement and participation. It is not about hanging people, but about the awkward intimacy that comes with being human, and the connection between spectator, witness, and accomplice.
The Line is an experience about love and fear of change, set upon a scale-model of 1940s São Paulo. Peek into the world of Pedro and Rosa, two miniature dolls perfect for each other, but reluctant to break their boundaries and live out their love story.
Mirror is a short film in virtual reality which offers the viewer a 360-degree immersive experience in interactive 3D, delving into the question of memories and meaning. Travel through Claris’ memories as she becomes the first astronaut to set foot on Planet Mirror.
First installment of a six-episode docu- mentary series. In this episode entitled 'Birds of Prey', American director Abel Ferrara takes us with him on a journey through the heart of a story brought to life thanks to custom-designed animations based on his original films’ preproduction material.
Enter the thoughts of one of the Passengers and help them face a pivotal moment. Welcome aboard this interactive VR experience in which your gaze and voice influence the story.
A VR documentary and a fairy tale about the magical story of a dream come true: the Apollo missions. Experience the elevator ride as you are lifted up alongside the steaming rocket and then, have a look inside the command module.
A little boy asks his big sister to help with his fear of the dark. Drawn into a succession of dreamlike tableaus where everything comes alive, he learns to confront his fears.
Ex-military security guard Mr.S works for a bank and leads the life of a normal working-class man. He fantasizes about a major heist, a dream that becomes reality. This VR film uses abstract metaphor, combined with a unique hand-painted art style to create an intense high-quality thriller.
Narrating the aftermath of the 2014 Boko Haram kidnappings, this VR documentary explores gender rights and the right to education, seen through the eyes of Yana Galang, woman leader and mother of Rifkatu Galang, one of the girls abducted in Chibok, Nigeria.
Hominidae depicts an ecosystem of x-ray visibility, where creatures have evolved in surprising ways: humans, birds, spiders and frogs share unique anatomies. This experience follows an Arachnid Hominid, an intelligent creature with human and spider physiology, as they struggle to raise their young children.
At age 24, Mortaza had to flee his own country, Afghanistan, because he was sentenced to death by the religious authorities. Forced into exile, he travelled a dangerous and clandestine road to reach Europe and the country in which he wished to claim asylum: France.
A fire pot burns in the dark night. Footsteps sound in the distance and an exhausted man in a suit walks in. The man talks on the phone as he walks, we do not understand the man’s language, but we can almost feel his sadness.
Sitting in the back of a taxi, driving through the dark, you gradually piece together your story, abstracted and dream-like, as you progress into the quiet shock of a new world.
In a far away void appears an imposing and obscure form. It is a masterful geometry with prominent features, which by its very presence reveals an astonishing mystery to be unraveled. The form is revealed, immense and serious, an austere tetrahedron ordered by purity.All of these works will be presented on HTC Vive's Viveport platform, available across Canada for subscribers with compatible devices. Note that each artist sets the fee for experiencing their work — a great way to support creators during these uncertain times.The full lineup for the 49th Festival du nouveau cinéma will be unveiled on Tuesday, September 29.SEE THE PRESS RELEASE
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