i-Docs presents: Ken Eklund ‘The Future is an Authentic Fiction’

3rd June 2015 6.00PM, Watershed, Bristol  If you lived through the global oil shortage of 2007, or followed the trail of anomalies detected by Erhard Giskin, or heard one of the voicemails leaking from our possible futures (or just wish you had), this is the talk for you. Ken Eklund designs immersive play experiences about socially relevant issues, and he’ll be …

Life on hold: Al Jazeera web documentary reflects on the Syrian refugee crisis

Update: The second phase of this project launches today with five new people, five new circumstances and personal human stories. Reem Shaddad (Al Jazeera) commented: Phase I of Life on Hold was well received and our goal of bringing attention back to the human story as opposed to focusing on numbers is our only strategy moving forward. These are stories …

Do Not Track: the interactive documentary making me question my online privacy

Having just finished the third episode of the personalised interactive documentary series ‘Do Not Track‘, i’m left thinking: How can something as innocuous as a Facebook ‘Like’ be responsible for building such an in-depth profile of my personality?  A collaborative production from the NFB, Arte, Upian, Do Not Track is the brain-child of Brett Gaylor, whose previous work at Mozilla – as VP of their …

Free talk! Multi-linear documentary: tools & processes for creative practice

6th May 2015 4.00PM, Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol  Next week we are holding a free talk in the Pervasive Media Studio with Hannah Brasier. Hannah is a PhD candidate in the School of Media and Communication, at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia. She is also a member of the nonfiction Lab. Her project-based research is developing potential models of online interactive video practice …

All things interactive at Tribeca Film Festival 2015

Tribeca Film Festival is underway and alongside the traditional programme lies the always impressive Storyscapes and TFI Interactive which combines talks, installations and an interactive playground. To keep up with everything that took place, i’ve put together this Storify featuring top tweets, articles and pictures, as well as links to all the projects featured. When researching for this, the sheer breadth of …

Data-mining, privacy & personalisation: An interview with Matt Adams

Matt Adams is a co-founder of Blast Theory, an artists’ group making interactive work based in Brighton in the UK. Their latest project Karen is a smartphone app that uses psychological profiling in the background as you interact. Karen is a life coach who is happy to help you work through a few things in your life. However, as you chat …

i-Docs presents: Matt Adams (Blast Theory) – A Message from Karen

29th April 2015 6.30PM, Watershed, Bristol  We’re pleased to announce that following their installation at Tribeca Storyscapes, Blast Theory’s co-founder Matt Adams will be in Bristol to talk about their latest project Karen. Blast Theory makes games, performances and installations online, on the street and on mobile. Drawing on popular culture, their work often blurs the boundaries between the real and the …

Chinese migrant workers: Their lives & their poetry

By Jaya Mahajan. Originally published on Factual for Asia – republished with permission.  One of the most inspiring projects that I came across during the Asian Side of the Doc during February in Xiamen was an upcoming documentary that looked at the lives of migrant workers in China, through their poetry. The subject matter and treatment of the documentary – The Verse of …

The ethics of immersion, virtual reality & consent

Immersing your audience in hyper-real situations, whether within an immersive theatre setting or a virtual reality experience can evoke intense reactions – How do you balance the potential of these projects with the ethics? This was the question Mandy Rose put to panelists Kirsty Jennings (Blast Theory), Rik Lander (U-Soap Media) and Manuel Frutos-Perez (UWE) at the Digital Bristol session: Immersive Ethics – Dream or Nightmare? …

Listen up! Why you should be tuning into the She Does podcast

Following their success with interactive documentary Hollow, filmmakers Elaine Sheldon and Sarah Ginsburg are now busy showcasing conversations with other women making their mark in media. The She Does podcast, which is hosted by the pair, looks to go beyond guests’ current career status and “explore each woman’s past to understand how their personality, background and philosophy informs their work. Writers, producers, directors, …

Submit your ideas to !F Lab till the 6th of April

A year ago iDROPS and myself submitted a proposal to Creative Europe (Media Programme): we wanted to create a series of workshops designed to help professionals to develop their own interactive documentaries. We wanted to create something that would be more like an incubator than an inspirational seminar. Something very hands-on, where you are immersed in a multi-disciplinary environment so …