Tribeca Film Institute Announces Participants for 4th Annual ‘TFI Interactive’
Tribeca Film Institute Announces Participants for 4th Annual 'TFI Interactive'
By Zack Sharf
Indiewire
Zack Sharf
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The Tribeca Film Institute has announced the key speakers and participants for the fourth annual TFI Interactive (TFIi) event that takes place during the Tribeca Film Festival. TFIi assembles the brightest thinkers and innovators for an all-day forum that explores storytelling in the digital age. Presenters and skilled media artists will give a series of short talks to inspire ideas and collaborations. The day will aim to encourage participants to challenge existing filmmaking standards and to embrace digital in this ever-evolving field.
Also returning for a second year is the “Interactive Playground,” which connects participants with a selection of groundbreaking projects and gives them an opportunity to explore engaging content spanning the breadth of interactivity. Over 30 projects will be showcased, ranging from virtual experiences on new tech platforms, emerging talent from NYU and Hunter College’s interactive programs, games and workshops in the Maker Space and other featured projects including the National Board of Canada’s Haiku, That Dragon, Cancer and Priya’s Shakti.
The full TFIi program schedule, with descriptions courtesy of TFF, includes:
10.00 a.m. – Keynote: Training for Space with Lucy McRae, Science Fiction Artist/Director/Body Architect.
Full of contagious energy Lucy takes audiences out of the their comfort zone. She articulates her relationship with the world using her own body as a mechanism for prototyping the future. And now she is training for space.
10.45 a.m. – The People’s Platform with Astra Taylor, Author/Filmmaker
Cultural commentator, filmmaker and author Astra Taylor, brings us a debate on the place of the web as a democratizing force. The Internet is said to be a space of democratic expression, both culturally and politically. This talk will examine and challenge that claim through the lenses of documentary filmmaking and activism, making the case that in order to take advantage of the democratic potential of the net we first need to be more critical about its failings.
11.00 a.m. – Using Interactive Art to Nurture the Commons with Kawandeep Virdee, Co-Founder of New American Public Art, Head of Product at Embedly
Interactive and collaborative works can bring people together and make places more welcoming – both in digital and physical space. This collective medium has the power to cultivate a multitude of narratives to create personally meaningful experiences.
11.10 a.m. – Do Not Track with Brett Gaylor, Director, “Do Not Track”
Brett Gaylor is watching you – “Do Not Track,” also presenting at Storyscapes, takes you on a journey where you are as much the subject as the viewer. In this online series users are tracked in real time as they experience the narrative.
11.20 a.m. – The Rules of Our Digital Culture with Andrew Golis, Founder and CEO of This.
Andrew talks about how social media companies set the rules in our digital culture and how he is trying to rewrite those rules with This., a website that, according to The New York Times, has users “clamoring for an invite.”
11.30 a. m. – Read all about it? The future of The Guardian in Video and Words with Charlie Phillips, Head of Documentaries, The Guardian
The Guardian is expanding. Already the second most-visited English-Language newspaper website in the world, what is The Guardian hoping to achieve and how is going to build and maintain an audience who may still think of it as a written news source to be visited briefly when big stories break? What does this mean for the future of the newspaper, and just as importantly, what does this mean for the factual media-maker? The Guardian’s Head of Documentaries will explain the organization’s current plans and map out where the digital future lies for organizations like The Guardian.
11.45 a.m. – A Campfire for the World: Doodles and Delight with Ryan Germick, Team Lead, Google Doodles
It’s a talk about Google Doodles. Need we say more?
12.00 p.m. – True Stories Told Sideways with Amy Rose & May Abdalla, ANAGRAM
Amy and May, the creators behind Door Into The Dark, will talk about creating a feeling of being lost through built environments and how they push all of our senses to create a truly immersive experience. They will also be presenting at Storyscapes, created in collaboration with Bombay Sapphire Gin, the third annual complimentary showcase of interactive installations and a variety of experiential programs covering a range of tech disciplines, from virtual reality to hacking.
12.10 p.m. – The Long View with Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill, Directors, Jongsma + O’Neill
New storytelling technologies appear every day, but great projects take years to create. Directors Kel O’Neill and Eline Jongsma talk about the four-year, ten-country journey behind their interactive documentary Empire and discuss the virtues and curses of working with cutting-edge technology.
New storytelling technologies appear every day, but great projects take years to create. Directors Kel O’Neill and Eline Jongsma talk about the four-year, ten-country journey behind their interactive documentary Empire and discuss the virtues and curses of working with cutting-edge technology.
12.30 p. m. – AT&T Hack Challenge Presentation: helloWorld with John Benton, Director, Animesh Anand, Lead Developer, Robert Ooghe, Interactive Producer
A special presentation from a month-long AT&T supported hack to create a mobile driven interactive story experience. helloWorld is a beacon-based interactive story involving hackers, surveillance and a complicated father-daughter relationship. See the prototype and hear how they did it.
12.45 p.m. – TFI New Media Fund Project Showcase Part 1
The TFI New Media Fund, supported by the Ford Foundation, funds interactive non-fiction projects around social issues. Presenting projects; Priya’s Shakti – Ram Devineni, Whiteness Project – Whitney Dow, and Quipu Project – Maria Court.
1.00 p.m. – {The And} presented by IDFA DocLab
Created by The Skin Deep: Topaz Adizes, Director and Nathan Phillips, Creative Director
Special interactive documentary screening. Introduced by Caspar Sonnen, IDFA DocLab, {The And} is an interactive experience that places viewers in the the intimate space between couples.
1.30 – 2.30 p.m. LUNCH
2.30 p.m. – TFI New Media Fund Project Showcase Part 2
The TFI New Media Fund, supported by the Ford Foundation, funds interactive non-fiction projects around social issues. Presenting projects; Notes on Blindness – Arnaud Colinart, This Changes Everything – Katie McKenna and Mike Robbins, and Oakland Fence Project – Wendy Levy
2.50 p.m. – The Right Tools with Jessica Clark, Director, Dot Connector Studio
Looking at the right tools for strategizing around media with impact – a look at the Interactive Media Impact Working Group and the tools that are being developed to support creators in this field.
3.00 p.m. – NYC to Tehran with Amar C. Bakshi, Founder & Lead Artist, Shared_Studios
Amar will discuss the work of Shared_Studios, a multidisciplinary arts, design and technology collective focused on carving wormholes throughout the world. In particular, he’ll describe how the group seeks to ground the connective potential of new technology in physical spaces to create more accessible, secure, and sacred encounters between diverse populations – from NYC to Tehran.
3.10 p.m. – See, Hear – Act? with Sam Gregory, Program Director, WITNESS
How do we use live and immersive video to drive empathetic real-time connection and co-presence with people in crisis? How could distant witnesses use their skills, networks and collective leverage to the maximum effect, and translate feeling and experience into relevant, real-time actions in solidarity and support?
3.30 p.m. – You and Me as Data Points with Lam Thuy Vo, Interactive Editor, Al Jazeera America
Lam Thuy Vo has been creating delightful, surprising and moving experiences through data. Data sets can seem like sterile and clinical starting points for finding stories. But there’s a way to find a range of human experiences within data sets, to find the individual behind the data point and to explore storytelling that connects the far with the near view.
3.50 p.m. – Life Coaching with Matt Adams, Artist, Blast Theory
Karen is a life-coach app that wants to get to know you a little too well. Blast Theory’s project, also presenting at Storyscapes, looks at our relationship with data and technology.
4.00 p.m. – Why a Game? with Ryan Green & Josh Larson, Co-Creators, Numinous Games
If books are for telling, and films are for showing, and games are for playing, what is the medium for being? And should it matter to us? Join us as we explore videogames, narrative, and the development of That Dragon, Cancer, a videogame about loving Joel, a boy with cancer.
4.20 p.m. – Incubating The Arts with Julia Kaganskiy, Director, NEW INC.
As head of the first museum lead incubator for art, technology and design, Julia looks at how to support artists and creative entrepreneurs and create a vibrant environment for good things to happen.
4.30 p.m. – Your Experience Is the Documentary with Ida C. Benedetto, Co-Founder & Experience Designer, Sextantworks
Experience design can be used to sell products, make websites more enjoyable, or usher people into fictional worlds. But what about using experience design as a documentary art? Ida will share anecdotes from designing analogy games and trespass adventures that evoked reality in surprising ways.
4.40 p.m. – Empathy and Virtual Reality with BeAnotherLab
BeAnotherLab are presenting their Machine To Be Another in this year’s Storyscapes, a unique virtual reality experience and performance. They take the stage to interrogate what it means to understand others.
4.50 p.m. – Seven Digital Deadly Sins, Live presented by IDFA DocLab
National Film Board of Canada/The Guardian/Jam3 and Ophira Eisenberg, Host – Ask Me Another, NPR
A special interactive event to close out the day. Test your limits. Live. As we push the boundaries of your internet etiquette in a way that is humorous, ethical and very entertaining.
5.30 – 7.00 p.m – Reception presented by AT&T
TFIi will take place from 10am – 7pm at Spring Studios in New York City on Saturday, April 18. Tribeca Film Institute members can attend for free. Click here for more information and a sign-up form.
READ MORE: Tribeca Film Festival Announces Disruptive Innovation Award Honorees
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