The Veldt is the Tacoma Film Festival's VR/360 film studio at the Tacoma Film Festival which debuted in 2016.

The Veldt features VR films, interactive experiences, workshops, panels, and filmmaker meet & greets over the first weekend of TFF. Hosted by King's Books, The Veldt is free and open to the public October 5 - 6, 11 AM - 7 PM.



Why Is it Called The Veldt? We were inspired by Ray Bradbury's classic 1950 story of two children who explore the mystery of a virtual African plain, Bradbury foresaw that entertainment technology could hold both amazing promise and unforeseen consequences.

As a festival obsessed with the interaction of stories, perspectives, and media, we want VR at TFF to evoke the wonder and anxiety that Bradbury captured over 65 years ago.

OPEN STUDIO HOURS The Veldt is free and open to the public the weekend of 2019 TFF. Stop by Saturday or Sunday October 5 & 6 from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM to experience new 360 degree media. The Veldt is free and open to the public the weekend of 2019 TFF. Stop by Saturday or Sunday October 5 & 6 from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM to experience new 360 degree media.



THE VELDT PREVIEW PARTY | OCTOBER 4, 10 PM AT KING'S BOOKS



TFF is proud to host our fourth year of The Veldt, our XR/VR Studio located at King’s Books.

Learn more. Explore virtual worlds and party with incredible food from Red Star Taco Bar, signature cocktails, and beats by DJ Smokey Wonder.

The Veldt VR Studio is presented by:



2019 VR Films & Immersive Experiences

CONSCIOUS EXISTENCE | A Journey Within

Germany | 2018 | 12 min

Marc Zimmermann



We are gifted every moment with life's most precious achievement: A conscious mind, enabling us to sense and hold within, the universe's boundless beauty - a source of infinite inspiration that fuels our inner space. Being aware of and grateful for the invaluable fortune of a conscious existence is vital for a life in harmony and enables us to use our precious gift within to sense that beauty in every little thing.

West Coast Premiere



DOWN THE PIXEL HOLE

Israel/US | 2018 | 10 min

Meytar Moran



'Down the Pixel Hole' began as a search for anomalies in the digital matrix of Google Sky and the tracing of conspiracy theories about pixelation of objects and stars within the sky maps. The project developed into an immersive VR experience – a free fall in space through photographic layers from which the Google Sky fabric is constructed. The experience of falling through the empty pixels allows for an exhilarating discovery that is both terrifying and surreal as it is sublime?

WA State Premiere





DARK SHAPES

US | 2018 | 6 min

Kelly Campelia



'Dark Shapes' is a short animated and interactive VR film inspired by award-winning author E. Lily Yu's chilling story 'The Wretched and the Beautiful'. This piece was created in 2018 for an exhibit in The Wing Luke museum (Seattle, WA) showcasing Asian Pacific American influence on Science Fiction. The original story by E. Lily Yu explores parallels between aliens landing and refugee crises. In her story, well-meaning people struggle with the pressure to help those in need, welcome aid from untrustworthy sources who offer to take the burden off their hands and 'close their eyes' to the consequences.



EVEREST

UK | 2019 | 11 min

Jonathan Griffith



Follow Sherpa Tenji as he attempts to climb Mt Everest without the use of bottled oxygen, something that only 175 people have done before. Travel with him through the “Death Zone” and experience the thrilling highs and lows of climbing at the highest elevations on earth.





EYELYDIAN

US | 2019 | 3 min

Ryan Murray



Eyelydian is a 360° video that uses abstraction, animated geometric patterning, and photographic images to call to mind the colors, patterns, and visions seen as light filters through closed eyelids.

WA State Premiere





FLOODPLAIN

Turkey | 2018 | 13 min

Deniz Tortum



A mysterious tree watches over a forest while humans traverse its paths, planning construction zones and searching for a lost person. As civilization slowly unravels, quiet new dynamics emerge.



Floodplain is set against a man-made environmental crisis and explores our relationships to each other at the end of nature. If we can no longer be what we were, can we really become something new? Can we be a forest, or a stone; can we be a multitude of organisms; can we be nothing? Can we be something that we don’t know we can be yet?



GELEIBT, GEHASST UND 360

Austria/Germany | 2018 | 4 min

Daniel Moshel



Witness musicians, dancers and famous singers in VR close ups, as well get the possibility to travel through locations audience is normally entirely excluded from. See how it feels to get standing ovations and roaring applause by 2500 opera visitors on the grand opera stage.





HOME WITH AMÉRICA

Peru/US | 2019 | 13 min

Alvaro Morales



Gladys, an undocumented immigrant living in L.A., left Peru 22 years ago. Gladys explores her relationship to a place that she cannot return to without risking the life she's built in the US. In defiance of this separation, Gladys finds a way to reunite with her dying mother, América.





INVENTION

UK | 2018 | 5 min

Vaiga Perkauskaite



In INVENTION’s Rubik's-cube-like cell, the participant is simultaneously trapped and freed: invited to play and driven by rhythm, all the while discovering new evolutions of chaos with every turn.





LES RÊVES DU DOUANIER ROUSSEAU

France | 2018 | 7 min

Nicolaus Authemann



A late afternoon at the greenhouse of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. A curious visitor lets himself be locked in. But the greenhouse is haunted by the spirit of Henri Rousseau. Interrupted by the ghostly voice of the painter, the visitor oscillates between dream and reality, when the greenhouse becomes a jungle, populated by characters, animals and plants from the Dream of the Douanier Rousseau (1910).



THE GHOST, THE SPHINX, AND THE THIEF

US | 2018 | 4 min

Zeven Rodriguez, Juan Carlos Zaldívar, Kim Grinfeder



The Ghost, The Sphinx and The Thief is an immersive VR installation exploring the intertwined relationship between three species: the mythical, endangered ghost orchid, the sphinx moth (its sole pollinator), and a park ranger activist who got arrested in order to lobby for legislation to save the endangendered plant.



TOWER OF BABEL BY THE SEA

Taiwan | 2018 | 14 min

Wei Jung Feng



Ever-changing in his outward appearance, the devil sells man a destiny with the promise of a Tower of Babel. Man becomes cursed by his own greed, and as pollution spreads, nature is caught in a spiral of death.









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