We are thrilled to invite you to the first immersive Virtual Reality exhibition as part of the 13th Aegean Film Festival. Discover a world of storytelling through cutting-edge virtual reality experiences that transport you to different realms and times.
The exhibition is curated by Mathias Chelebourg, an Emmy-award-winning writer, director, and producer best known for his pioneering work in innovative storytelling. Mathias now leads Paris-based Atelier Daruma, a studio exploring AI and emerging technologies in art and design.
Atelier Daruma supports the innovative approach AFF is implementing with a strong and agile in-house R&D team, skilled in both hardware and software. They craft effective hands-on tools for their artists, custom technologies, and engineer patented technologies to propel their location-based entertainment. They believe that creating relevant transformative experiences requires nurturing an in-depth knowledge of the market and maintaining an advanced state of the art both creatively and technically.
The exhibition on the beautiful island of Patmos will feature five VR film experiences specifically installed for the festival, open to the public. This experience will enhance visitors’ experiences by providing immersive and interactive displays of the films, allowing for a unique kind of exploration of the narratives, while bringing history, creativity and art to life in innovative ways.
Director: Benoit Felici, Mathias Chelebourg Language: Chinese Subtitles: English, French
Paris, the Taj Mahal, Venice, the Vatican: all these monuments and many more have replicas scattered around the globe.
Not just simple copies, these constructions are mirrors in which a certain image of the world is reflected.
The real thing is a journey into a copy of our world. Seeking the monumental copycat architecture of China and other countries around the world. Residential areas where people live an everyday life in places simulating other places.
Recontre(s)
VR • 15’ • France
Director: Mathias Chelebour Language: English Subtitles: None
In 1921, Gabrielle Chanel was 38 years old, and dazzlingly successful. Nicknamed the Queen of Paris by certain journalists, she had managed to establish a new silhouette that instantly gave her international influence. Her Parisian salon in Faubourg-Saint-Honoré was a pivotal place, where all the artistic avantgarde of the day rubbed shoulders.
This year she met Ernest Beaux, perfumer to the Tsars, following this Rencontre, N°5 was created: a mirror image of mademoiselle in fragrance form, the most famous scent in the world. Step into the famous perfumer’s shoes. Slip behind the curtain and travel back in time in this intimate immersive, multi-sensory experience.
Doctor Who: The Runaway
VR • 11’ • UK, France
Director: Mathias Chelebourg Language: English Subtitles: None
The VR experience stars Jodie Whittaker voicing an animated version of the Thirteenth Doctor, a role she’s just reprised in the new series on TV. The viewer crash lands in the TARDIS and is quickly recruited by the Doctor to help return a strange and potentially dangerous creature called Volta to its home planet.
Baba Yaga
VR • 23’ • USA
Director: Eric Darnell, Mathias Chelebourg Language: English Subtitles: None
When your mother, the Chief (Glenn Close), falls deathly ill, it is up to them and their sister Magda (Daisy Ridley) to do the unthinkable—enter the forbidden rainforest, uncover its hidden mysteries and get the cure from Baba Yaga. Ultimately, every decision you make matters… perhaps even whether humanity and nature can live in balance.
Alone
VR • 4’20” • France
Director: Mathias Chelebourg Language: English Subtitles: None
Astronaut Alessandra is no longer with the rest of her team. She wakes up, groggy and dazed, in complete darkness.
A survival drone went off and she found herself alone in a cave. To escape, Alessandra has to give it her all.
Somewhere between The Descent, Alone on Mars and 127 Hours… Pure survival in VR… Can you handle it?
Lick Fire
European Premiere • Animation • 6’ • Argentina • 2023
Director: Jeff Zorrilla Language: English Subtitles: English
Through intimate reflections, Lick Fire delves into the ecstasy and turmoil that spring forth from the limitless realm of imagination, while fearlessly contemplating the impending consequences of artificial intelligence in breathing life into these captivating and unreal realms.
The Artificial Conjuring Circle
Premiere • Experimental Animation • 5’ • Austria • 2024
Director: S()fia Braga Language: English Subtitles: English
An AI-generated short film, depicting an era of collaboration between humans and non-humans towards earthly survival. Within an artificial scenario, where even the subtitles elude comprehension, we bear witness to the process of human reprogramming.
Fred the Super Computer
Premiere • Comedy • 7’ • USA • 2024
Director: Sam Kimbrell Language: English Subtitles: English
Fred the Super Computer is about a man who befriends a computer who wants to take over his entire life. The film comedically explores why we are truly here and how much tech truly means to our existence.