Interactive film highlights the secret missions carried out by Londoners against the apartheid regime in South Africa

Following on from the successful Disobedient Objects exhibition, the V&A has worked with the Disobedient Film Company to release an experiential documentary film called London Recruits: the Secret War Against Apartheid. 1960s and 1970s apartheid South Africa saw anti-apartheid leaders like Nelson Mandela jailed or killed for their resistance to a racist regime. African National Congress activists such as Ronnie …

Expanding documentary: the impact of Living Los Sures

In the early 1980s, director Diego Echeverria captured five stories from the Brooklyn neighbourhood Los Sures, looking to represent the challenges it was facing; drugs, gang violence, crime, abandoned real estate, racial tension, single-parent homes and inadequate local resources. Alongside this portrait of struggle, the film also celebrated the vitality of this largely Puerto Rican and Dominican community. 30 years on from …

Interactive documentary: Deadline dates for papers, funds, festivals & development labs

Whilst today is the last day to submit interactive projects to Sheffield Doc Fest (Deadline 11pm GMT!) there are plenty of other funds, festivals and development labs that are still open. The following are a few upcoming deadlines: Visible Evidence XXII Extended deadline: Monday 23 February  This first call is positioned more for the academics amongst us: Visible Evidence, the international conference on …

In Limbo Interactive: How is the digital world changing us?

Directed by Antoine Viviani, In Limbo Interactive is the latest project released by the NFB; a personalised interactive film that reveals the traces we leave on the Internet. The work forms part of a broader reflection exploring our relationship with digital culture. The experience begins by asking for access to all of your social media accounts, geolocation and webcam. As I allowed this access (a procedure often …

Creating an open source tool for non-linear storytelling

by David Dufresne. Original post here, republished with permission.  On January 14th, in a room of the Open Documentary Lab at MIT, we are a dozen people gathered around a crazy project, a simple project: Let’s build a tool for writing non-linear stories. An open source tool, open to all. In the room: some designers like Jeff Soyk (UX architect for Hollow), students like Deniz …

The Story of Now: BBC experiment with new platform ‘Taster’

Last week the BBC launched two new interactive documentaries – alongside a load of other interactive content – on their new platform BBC Taster. Ostensibly aimed at a younger generation, the documentaries feature a backstage insight into the inescapable hip hop stars Run The Jewels, as well as a 20-part interactive series hosted by Idris Elba called The Story of Now. …

Is this the future of life with VR? Dispatches from the Sundance New Frontier lab

Is this the future of life with VR?” asks the NFB’s head of digital, Loc Dao on Twitter. It’s certainly the dominant view from the Sundance New Frontier lab, as pictures of be-goggled guests flying like birds and walking through woods appear online – “All approaches are different, you can almost see how their craft is informing their approach to this technology.” …

Writing Digital: MIX DIGITAL 3 – Call for Papers

MIX DIGITAL has established itself as an innovative forum for the discussion and exploration of writing and technology, attracting an international cohort of contributors from the UK, Australia, and Europe as well as North and South America. After the success of the last two MIX DIGITAL conferences, Bath Spa University is hosting Writing Digital: MIX DIGITAL 3 in the newly completed Commons building …

Making digital history: The Dragon and the Eagle

By Colin Thomas Putting history on television can be a hugely frustrating business. One history professor I worked with found it so frustrating that on one occasion he flung his notes down in front of the cameraman and stamped on them. I could sympathise. In one television series we were cramming three hundred years into twenty-five minutes, no time for …

The tricky topic of impact & interactive documentary

There has been much attention given to impact within documentary over the last couple of years. While BritDoc have stated in their recently published impact guide; ‘the power of film to change the world has become impossible to ignore’ and the Puma prize has been established to reward impact, what is meant by impact is not self-evident and for some, …

Stories Of Change: can digital and interactive media (help to) save the world?

When: Thu 8 Jan 17:30 Where: Watershed, Bristol Ticket price: Free Falling in the first days of Bristol’s year as the inaugural Green Capital, two experts in the field of digital media will ask: can digital and interactive media (help to) save the world? First up is Mandy Rose – Thinking through Climate Change In a world where media is everywhere, and …

PttP Cross Media Forum: top 3 interactive presentations

If, like me, you didn’t get the chance to attend the 2014 Power to the Pixel Cross Media Forum, you can now catch up with the presentations online! Here are the top 3 to watch if your focus is on interactive work and once again it’s great to see makers lay projects bare; sharing inspiration, discussing their failures and providing details …

Virtual Reality: here, there and everywhere

Virtual reality is certainly the flavour of the month, year and by the looks of things, next year too. But with such a focus on the technology, is there a danger good storytelling can get lost? Much like the rest of the interactive documentary field, virtual reality is just another piece of technology and the medium must suit the message. This was …

Listen up: music, journalism and interactive storytelling

The ‘N’ Word, NSA Files: Decoded and Snowfall are all great examples of interactive journalism which have garnered a lot of attention over the last couple of years – but alongside this, there’s creative things happening within music journalism that should not be ignored. A couple of years ago I saw Pitchfork’s beautifully designed, in-depth interview with Bat for Lashes (aka Natasha …