The XRDocs International Immersive Documentary Festival is a strong initiative by IDEAL Centre of Digital Arts, who, acknowledging the importance of immersive technologies within documentary narratives, creates the world’s first festival about immersive documentary cinema.

For the 2021 Edition, the XRDocs International Immersive Documentary Festival has selected 5 documentaries rewarded at prestigious international film festivals. Besides, it will feature 5 exclusive interviews to the filmmakers of the documentaries, a first step at the inquest and the dialogue of the new narratives and tech immersive at the documentary cinema.

Director: Ainslee Robson
9,31 min

Original Version English

Her debut Ferenj: A Graphic Memoir in virtual reality, is based on her personal experience and deconstructs the tensions resulting from her bi-racial identity, migration and her perception and nostalgia. This immersive experience opened at Tribeca, SXSW, and she has also participated in other festivals worldwide. Ferenj received the Special Jury Prize at NewImages 2020 and has been translated into French and Mandarin Chinese.

Ferenj is a visual dialogue between memory and reality and immersive memory through digital, about the mixed Ethiopian-American identity.

Director: Juan Pablo Urgilés
12,06 min

Original Version Spanish

An immersive experience that uses documentary, video 360, virtual reality, journalistic research, workshops and participation to sensitize society about human mobility and Venezuelan displacement. It tells the story of Agny, a Venezuelan woman who crosses several cities in Ecuador on foot and by bus, in order to reunite with her cousin and work a few days with him to gather money and achieve his main objective: regroup her children. Immersion and history place the viewer in the midst of a family that seeks to reunite and, at the same time, put him as a witness to Agny’s experience.

Director: Clément Deneux
8,20 min

Original Version English

Hard times, bad luck, tight spots, mishaps, quarrels, setbacks, hiccups, destiny… Some films, it seems, become recipes for misfortune, never to see the light of day. Missing Pictures is an immersive documentary series that delves into the stories that were never able to make it on the big screen, interviewing great directors of our time to learn what happened.  In this first episode, meet long-time independent American filmmaker Abel Ferrara. Birds of Prey’ would have been the political thriller of his dreams…until it all fell apart. The neo-noir, provocative director behind movies like Ms. 45 (1981) and Bad Lieutenant (1992), takes us with him on a journey through the heart of a story brought to life thanks to custom-designed animations based on the original pre-production material.

Director: Joel Kachi Benson
12,10 min

Original Version English

From a young age, Noah Shemede believed that his destiny was on the water. But after going to a school in the city, he returns to his hometown with a dream – to use education to transform the lives of the children living in Makoko, the floating slum outside of Lagos. But this won’t be an easy task. From birth, children are taught to help their parents build boats, make nets, and catch fish. Education is almost a foreign concept. But Noah is relentless, and with a team of volunteers, he sets out on a mission to change his community through education.

Chloé Rochereuil
16,47 min

Original Version English

On April 15, 2019, the Notre-Dame cathedral caught fire. Nine months later, Notre-Dame is not entirely saved, but still standing. Experience a unique and unprecedented immersion in the cathedral before and after the fire, narrated by the leaders who look after the iconic monument.