Through programs like the VR-based “Immersed Exhibition” and a varied line-up of unique films, VIFF is giving artists like Cecelia Condit and Juliana Loh a platform to explore the limits of their medium.

The way we take in media has changed substantially over the last few years—ask anyone with a Netflix subscription. Not long ago, the lines between film and television were clearly drawn, cinemas were booming, and original shows and movies like Breaking Bad or Inception could enjoy a monoculture of attention. 

These days, our prestige television shows look and act like movies, and our franchise-minded films feel like episodes in decade-long seasons. Generation Z’s cable TV is YouTube. What was once an industry of tried and true formulas now morphs at a pace more rapid than ever before. The contemporary media landscape is a game of adaptation, and experimentation is its currency.  

There’s no greater testing ground for experimentation in film than a festival. This year, I was lucky enough to be given the chance to speak about these topics with two artists whose pieces were featured at the Vancouver International Film Festival: Cecelia Condit and Juliana Loh. 

Cecelia is a director who is best known for her short, surreal musical films that explore feminist ideas. Her 1983 piece Possibly in Michigan is widely regarded as her masterwork, having been featured in the Museum of Modern Art, as well as enjoying a revived boost in attention due to its viral repurposing on TikTok. Her latest piece, I’ve Been Afraid, is playing now at VIFF, and explores the many traumas of womanhood. It’s a topic as old as time, but Condit has found a way to explore these ideas in a fresh light, through the use of emoji-based imagery over original music.

“When you're playing, you often find unexpected gifts. It's an expression of the importance of innocence while exploring the cruelty of the world.”

When I asked Cecelia how she managed to dream up such an unusual approach, she told me, “It was born out of play. When you're playing, you often find unexpected gifts. It's an expression of the importance of innocence while exploring the cruelty of the world.” Indeed, an air of playful experimentation surrounds the piece. Whether it’s a GIF of a dancing baby emoji, or use of the “Memoji” feature to capture Cecelia’s live-performance of the lyrics, the visuals have a way of being whimsical, modern, uncanny, and sticking with you long after the video is done.

Even the runtime reflects her pursuit of the unorthodox. I’ve Been Afraid clocks in at just under seven minutes, leaving it longer than your average music video, yet more brief than the vast majority of short films. Its length and content are most like a YouTube video, and that exploration of a modern medium was intentional. The recent re-introduction of her work to millions of TikTok users has been thought-provoking for her, to say the least. “It has an impact on me, and I think that I've Been Afraid was a response to that. It was a way of saying ‘I can still make songs that I think are relevant as an old person in a young medium.’ It was also a way of saying ‘Get off my doorstep, and give me some space.’ It was a double-edged thing.”

The same spirit of creative metamorphosis that flavours Cecelia’s work was present throughout VIFF’s whole slate this year. In large part, this is due to the Immersed Exhibition, a festival program that showcased sixteen virtual reality experiences. Including interactive VR in a film festival is an unusual choice. For many, VR is synonymous with video games; but, as our movies and games begin to blur the lines of immersion and interactivity, these two mediums are beginning to have more in common than not.

One of the featured pieces is Juliana Loh and Nicholas Liang’s Awaken the Giants: Sinisteria and Shriek. Featuring striking, psychedelic imagery, this world was designed by them to explore the delicate balance between technology, nature and humanity. 

“Without anything to distract us, we are able to focus on other visitors, listen and share our personal stories. We are able to empathize with one another a little more…”

While she prepared for the festival, I asked Juliana why VR was an effective method for exploring such weighty topics. She responded that “[VR] forces people to become intimate with others within a very short time. The concept of 'presence' or one's sense of being in an actual spatial environment is heightened by VR in a manner that is absent in most other media. Without anything to distract us, we are able to focus on other visitors, listen and share our personal stories. We are able to empathize with one another a little more and to ultimately discover what we have in common as opposed to fixating on our differences.” 

As we progress closer to extremely immersive versions of VR technology being widely accessible, the potential for VR’s impact on the methodology of storytelling is growing exponentially. Juliana is focused on how VR offers the ability for the lines between entertainment and therapeutic needs to blur. 

“I want people to have fun and to engage with each other, to listen and share stories and to escape from the challenges of the world. I also want to draw people into the artwork and to consider incorporating artwork into their world. Inspiring people to enjoy something you've created is cool, but having them actually try VR art out after visiting my world is ever better! I want people to feel inspired, amazed, challenged and affirmed. Basically, I want them to play.”

It was once the case that in order to push the technological boundaries of a medium, artists often needed the support of industry giants who could afford the high price of innovation. Now, as the rate and accessibility of experimentation is tenfold, the goal of creative upheaval does not need to be profits, but creation for creations sake. Artists like Cecelia Condit, Juliana Loh and Nicholas Liang are making the most of these new opportunities, and working to remind viewers of the value of play. VIFF is doing great work by support these forward-thinking artists, and I can’t help but be thankful that we live in a time where what we enjoy tomorrow might be something we couldn’t have dreamed of yesterday.