We’re thrilled today to announce that the Oculus VR for Good Creators Lab project Home After War: Returning to Fear in Fallujah and the first and final installment of SPHERES will both debut at the Venice International Film Festival in August. This is the second year that the Venice International Film Festival has added a full-fledged VR category to its official selection, demonstrating its continued commitment to VR as an art form across the globe, and we’re excited to return after last year’s world premiere of Dispatch.

Directed by Gayatri Parameswaran from NowHere Media in partnership with the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), Home After War takes the viewer into the tragic, real-life story of an Iraqi family’s return to Fallujah after being displaced from their home by war.

Viewers walk through Ahmaied’s home, which still shows signs of damage, hearing his story and learning about the ever-present threat posed by IEDs and what it’s like to fear the home you once loved.

Following the debut of SPHERES Episode 2: “Songs of Spacetime” at the Sundance Film Festival and Episode 3: “Pale Blue Dot” at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, the team will debut its first and final episode, “Chorus of the Cosmos,” at Venice. Festival attendees will be able to view all three episodes together for the first time.

In this interactive VR experience, viewers will discover the Universe through sound. As Director Eliza McNitt says, “The solar system becomes an instrument, and we will listen to its music.”

See you in Venice!

— The Oculus Team