Put on a pair of VR goggles and let yourself be sucked into a portal to an animated reality.

This program screened as part of Kaboom Animation Festival 2019

Showing in this program

Accused no.2: Walter Sisulu

• Gilles Porte / Nicolas Champeaux
• France, 2018
• 14 min.

The story of the struggle against Apartheid is symbolised by one man: Nelson Mandela. He came to public notice during a historic trial in 1964. Seven co- accused were sentenced with him to hard labour for life. Among them, Walter Sisulu, the grey eminence of the movement, was the first co-defendant to take on the formidable prosecutor Percy Yutar.
Today, with 256 hours of audio recordings of the hearings, we can relive that battle and, through those remarkable resources, (re) discover the story of the ANC’s fight against Apartheid.

Black Bag

• Qing Shao
• China, 2019
• 12 min.

This is the story of a black leather bag.
Ex-military security guard, Mr. S, works for a bank. He leads the life of a normal, peaceful, stable, and poor working-class man, one who fantasizes about a major heist. As the plan solidifies, Mr. S starts to struggle with his own morality, resulting in torturous nightmares.
Fantasy became reality as the opportunity finally arrives. A mysterious black leather bag is deposited into the bank vault by a VIP.
Other than a police patrol, the escape went smoothly. Mr. S was successful in robbing the black leather bag through the help of his veteran friends, whom he murdered in the process in order to keep it for himself.
As he enters the tunnel, the real world starts to peel away from him. Mr. S stepped out of a strange elevator and arrived at hell, where all his past sins played on television screens.

Gloomy Eyes 1+2

• Fernando Maldonado / Jorge Tereso
• France / Argentina, 2019
• 17 min.

When the sun got tired of the humans it decided to hide and never rise again.
The darkness awoke the dead from their graves. A zombie kid called Gloomy and a mortal girl called Nena fall in love and immerse in a deep connection that not even the most powerful man in town can destroy.
Gloomy Eyes is an animated VR-series in 6DoF & 3D real time releasing in 3 chapters.

Mindpalace

• Dominik Stockhausen / Carl Krause
• Germany, 2018
• 10 min.

In a last desperate attempt to communicate, a man decides to lock his boyfriend inside his mind. A raging stream of consciousness unfolds, shedding light on a flawed relationship.

Shoebox Diorama No.4: The Fernweh Opera

• Daniël Ernst
• The Netherlands, 0
• 7 min.

When visiting a stage performance there is this awkward feeling when you accidentally make eye contact with a performer on stage. During this brief and intimate moment the distance between you and the performer completely disappears. Die Fernweh Oper has such a distance as a premisse. The distance between a star and a human, the distance between performer and audience, between real and virtual and the distance between memory and present.

In Die Fernweh Oper you will visit a perpetual opera performed by a star in the form of a 50 ft tall opera singer named Asteria, who sings especially for you and about your foolish love for her. Just as with the stars you see at night, she has already died light years ago and what you see of her is her last light that reaches your eyes. It wouldn’t be an opera without a tragic story of course.

Still There?

• Kela van der Deijl / Mischa Penders / Līva Sadovska
• The Netherlands, 2018
• 8 min.

A VR film exploring the concept of faith. Society has nowhere to go but up due to the rising water but you must first go on a dangerous deep sea exploration to recover what has long been lost in order to secure the survival of your community. Sometimes when everything is dark and painful, you're heading in the right direction.
Still There? was made in 16 weeks by three people new to VR.

Tales of Wedding Rings

• Sou Kaei
• Japan, 2018
• 27 min.

Logline: A boy who finds out the childhood friend he secretly likes is actually a princess from another world; where an unexpected adventure awaits.

Sato is an average high school student in Japan, who lives next to his classmate, Hime, a girl who is well known at school for her pretty looks. One day just before summer vacation, Sato receives a message from Hime inviting him to meet up after school. The two attends a shine festival close by, where Hime reminiscence about the last time they attended the festival when they were young. On the way home, Sato decides to confess his love for Hime, but she interrupts him and says that she is moving back to a place far away. She thanks him for the time together and says goodbye before going inside her apartment. Sato goes home and tries to make sense of the sudden development when he notices a strange light in the mountains close by. Sensing that it is something to do with Hime’s leaving, he heads to the source of the light, where he later finds Hime standing before a portal to another world. Hime reveals that she is in fact a princess from another world and it is time for her to head back, where she is to be married. Saying goodbye once and for all, she disappears into the portal. Sato hesitates, but then quickly finds the resolve to follow Hime into the portal.