Siobhan McDonnell, founder and director of HeteroDocs, take us through her highlights and takeaways from IDFA, the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. With a growing focus on VR and immersive technologies, Siobhan and Jake discuss some of the most cutting-edge immersive experiences of IDFA 2019 - and among these, Victoria Mapplebeck’s VR documentary, “The Waiting Room” which just won the IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling. 

Listen to learn more about how VR and new technologies are changing storytelling in documentaries, get insights from panel talks and industry events at IDFA, 

If you want to see more of Siobhan’s work with HeteroDocs, check out her website: https://heterodocs.com/ 

Bonus info: Victoria Mapplebeck is also featured in our first Real Stories podcast episode, as the director of the BAFTA- winning Real Stories documentary, “Missed Call.”

If you want to check out the documentaries and directors that are being mentioned in this episode, we’ve listed them here for reference:

From IDFA 2019:

Waiting Room - VR documentary by Victoria Mapplebeck (Winner IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling)

Ayahausca: Kosmik Journey Dome Experience - VR documentary by Jan Kouen 

'Jawline' debut feature by Liza Mandelup

Other:

Travelling While Black - VR documentary by Roger Ross Williams

Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam by Omar Majeed - you can see this documentary on Real Stories YouTube.

Kim Longinotto, documentary filmmaker

Sean McAllister , documentary filmmaker

Nonny de la Peña, journalist and immersive documentary filmmaker

Also, if you’re interested in the numbers around VR and immersive technologies, Digital Catapult recently released a report on the immersive economy in the UK 2019, which can be found on their website. 

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