UCHV Film Forum: IMMERSIVE — An Evening with Lynette Wallworth

Film director Lynette Wallworth presents her immersive work:

6:30-7:30pm Awavena (2018) (viewing through VR-headsets in the JST lobby)

6:30-7:30pm Collisions (2016) (viewing through VR-headsets in the JST lobby)

7:30-8:30pm Coral: Rekindling Venus (2012) (traditional theatrical screening)

8:30-9:30pm Conversation with Lynette Wallworth

Register for this event here.

Awavena (2018) is a stunning tale of metamorphosis in the Brazilian Amazon told through a virtual reality experience. Lynette was invited to create Awavena during a time of peril and potential for the Yawanawa community as they fight to protect nearly 200,000 hectares of Amazonian forest. Because it aligns with the sensation of their vision states the Yawanawa chose VR technology as means of sharing their story with the world. The story they wished to share was of the cultural rejuvenation that occurred when they put an end to rigid gender roles that restricted the lives of women. Made in collaboration with Hushahu – the first female shaman of the Yawanawa people – this virtual reality experience opens a portal to the world of the Yawanawa and their practice of using ‘medicines’ to access altered states of knowing. (25 min.)

Collisions (2016) invites audiences on a journey to the land of indigenous elder, Nyarri Nyarri Morgan and the Martu tribe in the remote Western Australian desert. In this thought-provoking, immersive virtual reality experience, Nyarri shares his story of the dramatic collision between his traditional worldview and the extremes of western science and technology. (14 min.)

Coral: Rekindling of Venus (2012) is an extraordinary journey into a mysterious realm of fluorescent coral reefs, bioluminescent sea creatures and rare marine life, revealing a complex community living in the oceans most threatened by climate change. (50 min.)

Lynette Wallworth is an artist whose work ranges from documentary features through VR films to installations and performance art. Wallworth’s works have shown at venues and festivals across the world, including the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the American Museum of Natural History, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, the Smithsonian; Venice Film Festival, IDFA, CPHDOX, London Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival. Wallworth is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Augmented and Virtual Reality and Director of the Forum’s New Narratives Lab. She is Artist in Residence at the Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW and at AFTRS and she currently sits on the board of The Sundance Institute.

Register for this event here.

The spring season of the Film Forum is dedicated to immersive films. PU ID-holders can register for our Monday events of synchronized headset-viewing of six award-winning VR films.

Learn more about the Film Forum here: https://uchv.princeton.edu/events/film-forum