Concluding on 22 June, the 34th Sunny Side of the Doc featured a noticeable uptick in presented immersive content. The La Rochelle event dedicated to the international documentary community also announced a split between Sunny Side of the Doc and its annual immersive-focused #PiXii Festival#, which will now run from 19 – 22 October 2023. With a focus on international creations and innovation, the new setup would allow experts from across the field to gather and participate in their respective XR conferences, masterclasses, and case studies. At the same time, a selection of finished works and prototypes were presented on the east end of the event’s massive convention hall.
On the separation of the Sunny Side and PixII Festival, Head of Innovation and Digital Experiences Maïté Labat explains the motivations, «Having both events run simultaneously caused confusion for both the general public and professionals. Moving PiXii to October was a strategic move, making it easier for people to attend without conflicting with beach holidays.» This separation allowed for the Sunny Side Innovation Studio, which showcased VR experiences and nonlinear projects, with a professional focus in mind. PixII, on the other hand, «aims to engage the general audience.»
With this in mind, Modern Times Review spent time experiencing the spectrum of the Sunny Side of the Doc Innovation Studio projects. Mostly #VR with a handful in #augmented reality#, the Innovation Studio projects featured some familiar names and many new ones as either prototype works-in-progress or finished projects. Some familiar titles included On The Morning You Wake (To the End of the World). This VR project was featured previously at Biattitrz’ Fipadoc, revolving its informative narrative around the 2018 Hawaii alert crisis. Furthermore, the IDFA Doclab-premiered His Name is My Name from Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill, and Miri Chekhanovich and Edith Jorisch’s Plastisapiens. The latter project was part of the Sunny Side of the Doc Innovation Studio collaboration with Quebecois digital experience studio Xn Quebec. The remaining projects came from a variety of locations, including Taiwan, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic and more.
From the Xn Quebec selections, I was able to experience two, both in the VR space. Firstly, the Ahnaktsipitaa and NFC co-production This is Not a Ceremony – a mystical journey through some of Canada’s darkest episodes of Indigenous life. The powerful Les Pieds en Haut: Lou from UNTLD was next. Its pastel colour palette situates users into dual roles of parent and child in the struggle with #autism. Though both projects utilized their VR environments well, the heavy focus on interactivity set Les Pieds en Haut: Lou apart from most across the Innovation Studio. While This is Not a Ceremony felt like a snapshot into struggle, Les Pieds en Haut: Lou invited users to inhabit multiple perspectives, diving into the mind and motivations of autism.
From the wider Sunny Side of the Doc collection, I was able t experience more VR projects and one in AR. Firstly, in AR was Wilderness from Lisa Eder Film GmbH Production. Through a tablet, users take a walk through an augmented forest. There, they can watch film clips. Peek inside a tree, listen to audio of Ural Owls, explore underground nets of fungi and more. Wilderness was a simple project in its presentation – a modern extension of a television nature documentary, albeit for any wildlife lover, a welcome exploration.
Two prototype VR projects were featured promisingly. The Island of Shells, from Flash Forward Entertainment, utilised digital shadow puppetry to animate the first-hand account of Taiwanese political prisoners during the 19070s White Terror era. Library of Dreams, from Jane Rzheznikova, Aleksandr Lyapunov, Alina Mihaleva & Less Media Group, is a documentary project base on the research of dreams during periods of state repression and wars in the #Third Reich#, #USSR and modern #Russia#. Through inhabiting a digital library, an alternative universe is created through restructured dreams and memory.
Besides This is Not a Ceremony, #colonialism also featured in the VR project Zedna, albeit this time from #Greenland. The #CPH:LAB supported project was a first-hand investigation of the process of decolonisation and broken identities, utilising an interesting split-screen perspective and a highly personal story to present a relevant voice in the ongoing debate on colonial heritage and personal identity.
Finally was, in my opinion, the strongest project of the group – Darkening from Hana Blaha Šilarová and Frame Films. This immersive, animated documentary takes users deep into the mind of #depression, sometimes through humour, other times through horror. Traverse diverse landscapes associated with the personal depressive manifestations of protagonist Ondřej, and discover the tool to control it across different periods of a lifetime.
Overall, the immersive projects presented at Sunny Side of the Doc featured a well-rounded selection of themes, topics, and stories. For Modern Times Review, some are more relevant than others in dealing with contemporary issues of a macro scale, which pulled my focus to the projects mentioned here.
