Aftermath VR: Euromaidan. Documentarity in the immersive space
Aftermath VR: Euromaidan. Documentarity in the immersive space
Virtual reality may be the closest the humanity ever got to the much dreamt of “time machine”. Nowadays, there are countless VR/AR projects recreating significant historic events with varying levels of factual accuracy and fictionalization. In Aftermath VR: Euromaidan, the immersive documentary about the bloody morning of February 20, 2014, creators wanted to tell a comprehensive and accurate story, and minimize approximation. The solution was doing a photogrammetric scan of downtown Kyiv, adhering to visual archives of individuals and media outlets, and interviewing eyewitnesses of the events, so the viewers could retrace the path the protesters took on that day.
Speakers
Alexey Furman
Alexey Furman is a Ukrainian visual storyteller, University of Missouri alumni and co-founder of New Cave Media, an immersive storytelling studio based in Kyiv, Ukraine.
He covered the Ukrainian revolution of 2013/2014, the annexation of Crimea and the ongoing war in East Ukraine.
Alexey’s coverage of the conflict has been recognized by POYi, NPPA, PDN Photo Annual, and the Bayeux-Calvados Award for War Correspondents. His work has been published in TIME, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera America, 6MOIS, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, De Standaard, and Financial Times.
For two years, Alexey has been photographing heavily injured Ukrainian soldiers returning home. This work, entitled "Life after Injury", has received Grand Prize of the IAFOR Documentary Photography Award.
He co-founded immersive storytelling studio New Cave Media in summer of 2016. The studio creates immersive solutions for brands in Ukraine and elsewhere. New Cave Media’s recent clients include UNICEF, WWF, Mitsubishi, and GIZ. Studio’s personal project, a virtual reality documentary “Aftermath VR: Euromaidan”, received the Journalism 360 Challenge Grant from Google News Lab, Knight Foundation and ONA in July 2017.
The project premiered in March 2019 at International Human Rights Festival Docudays UA in Kyiv, won the Open Frame Award at goEast Film Festival and was nominated for the Best Digital Experience Award at Sheffield Doc/Fest.