Paloma Dawkins: Will Our Trust in Technology Be Our downfall?

Songs of the Lost is a magic-realist game odyssey through a surreal and absurd digital landscape. You’ll cross boundaries and traverse borders, roam hidden highways and meet enigmatic strangers, explore secret forests and enter the void on your journey to Apocabliss, the last safe haven…

A psychedelic audiovisual experience, Songs of the Lost has been created for the Manchester International Festival by award-winning Canadian games designer Paloma Dawkins and a team of international collaborators – with a pulsing, shape-shifting soundtrack by electronic composer-producer Jlin, who’ll be performing live at MIF19’s Queens of the Electronic Underground.

Montreal-based Paloma Dawkins is a cartoonist and self-taught animator turned virtual-reality and video-game artist. Known for her fantastical landscapes inhabited by strange and lovable characters, Dawkins strives to create games that are surreal and beautiful. Woolf+Lapin is quite thrilled to be working with her.

Fantasia 2019 VR Winners: Caretaker, The Realm Below & Heart of the Sathu

For a fourth year now, Woolf+Lapin programmed the VR selection for the 2019 edition of the Fantasia Film Festival.

Last night, Jury Members RKSS & screenwriter Martin Girard voted for:
 
Meilleure fiction VR
Best VR Fiction
THE CARETAKER
Réalisateurs / Directors: Jacob Wasserman, Nicolas Pesce & Adam Donald
États-Unis/USA / 2018 /13 min
 
Misant avec conviction sur quelques figures imposées du film d’horreur se déroulant dans un lieu hanté (THE SHINING), les auteurs créent de belles ambiances insolites qui profitent d’un travail particulièrement soigné sur la photographie 360° et la direction artistique. Il en résulte une expérience VR enveloppante à souhait qui sollicite habilement la réactivité du spectateur. 

Relying with conviction on some imposed figures of your typical horror film taking place in a haunted place (THE SHINING), the authors create an unusually beautiful atmosphere that benefits from a particularly careful work on 360° photography and art direction. The result is a wraparound VR experience that cleverly enlists the viewer’s responsiveness.

 
Meilleur documentaire VR
Best VR Documentary
HEART OF THE SATHU
Réalisatrice / Director: Leela Gilday
Canada / 2019 / 5 min
 
Heart of the Sathu est une expérience de réalité virtuelle vraiment unique et touchante, porteuse d’un message important sur l’environnement et les droits des femmes. Au centre du cercle de percussions, avec la performance vocale de Leela Gilday, vous ne pouvez pas vous empêcher de vous sentir privilégié de faire partie de ce moment puissant et significatif.

HEART OF the SATHU is a truly unique and touching VR experience, bearer of an important message about environment and women’s rights. As you stand in the middle of the drum circle, with Leela Gilday’s singing performance, you cannot help but feel privileged to be part of this powerful and meaningful moment.

 
Mention spéciale VR pour le meilleur cauchemar immersif
VR Special Mention for Best Immersive Nightmare:
THE REALM BELOW
Réalisateur / Director: Souichi Umezawa
Japon/Japan / 2018 / 9 min
 
Le nom de cette mention spéciale résume bien le tout : THE REALM BELOW vous transporte dans ce qui ressemble à un cauchemar fiévreux et terrifiant. Peu importe vos efforts pour vous éveiller, il vous sera simplement impossible de le décrire à vos amis le lendemain matin. Un film avec beaucoup de cœur et une grande créativité artisanale, ce qui apporte résolument un plus à cette expérience singulière.

The name of this special mention says it all—THE REALM BELOW drags you down into what feels like this weird and creepy fever nightmare. No matter how hard you try, it’s just impossible to describe it to your friends the next morning. There is seemingly a lot of heart and great DIY creativity that went into its making, which most definitely adds to this singular experience.

Fantasia Genre VR: Ghost in the Shell, Gymnasia, Museum of Symmetry…

Fantasia VR kicks off tomorrow, (19-20/07).

FANTASIA International Film Festival, in collaboration with Woolf + Lapin and Mont VR, are proud to present the FANTASIA VR Experience. From 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., Friday July 19 and Saturday, July 20, festival goers will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in an international program selected by Woolf + Lapin.

A total of 12 Virtual Reality experiences await you, including a documentary series comprised of 5 independent episodes, many genre titles and a few poetic rhapsodies. (Ghost in the Shell, Gymnasia, Museum of Symmetry, etc).

The FANTASIA VR experience will be installed in the Atrium at 1400 Boul. de Maisonneuve W., directly in front of Concordia University’s J.A. De Sève Theater. Admission is free, with a 20-minute session for each participant. Participants will be encouraged to vote for their favourite virtual reality film.

The 2019 VR jury is comprised of scribe Martin Girard and director trio RKSS.

Please come see us!

‘Dreamkatcher’: Lin Shaye, Radha Mitchell & Henry Thomas Star In U.S. Horror-Thriller

Excerpted from Deadline.com’s Andreas Wiseman.

EXCLUSIVE: Lin Shaye (Insidious), Radha Mitchell (The Romanoffs) and Henry Thomas (The Haunting Of Hill House) lead cast in U.S. horror-thriller Dreamkatcher.

The movie marks the feature debut of director Kerry Harris from a script by Dan V. Shea, based on a story by Harris and Shea. Producers are Christian Taylor of Taylor Lane Productions (Measure Of A Man), Orian Williams (Control), Annie Stewart (Leaving Las Vegas) and Harris. Executive producers are Film Mode Entertainment’s Clay Epstein, Mitchell, Shaye, and Gina Rugolo.

The film follows a Manhattan therapist (Mitchell) who travels upstate with her boyfriend (Thomas) and his orphaned son who is tormented by nightmares of his dead mother. When the husband is forced to return to the city, the therapist remains with the boy and they encounter a mysterious neighbor (Shaye) in the woods.

Finlay Wojtak-Hissong (The Banana Split Movie) plays the son. Jules Willcox (Under The Silver Lake) and Joseph Bishara (The Conjuring) round out the supporting roles.

Pic is being sold internationally by Screen Media in partnership with Film Mode Entertainment. The filmmakers are eyeing a series of films based on the premise.

Producer Taylor said, “Dreamkatcher is a grounded horror-thriller that explores themes of science vs the supernatural and I’m thrilled to be working with Kerry and this incredible cast”.

Shaye is repped by Rugolo Entertainment and Buchwald; Mitchell is handled by ICM Partners and attorney Doug Stone; Thomas is with Gersh and Brillstein Entertainment Partners; Wojtak-Hissong is handled by Coast to Coast and Attorney Carolyn Conrad; Wilcox is represented by Abrams Artists Agency and Authentic Talent & Literary Management; Harris is with Elina Levina at Harrison Artist Management; Shea is represented by Woolf + Lapin.

Woolf+Lapin Acquires Tracking Board’s Top Winner, “Don’t Go There”

Woolf + Lapin Acquires Launch Pad Overall Winner DON’T GO THERE – Exclusive

Woolf+Lapin is always on the lookout for an array of bold and especially unique projects. When we read Jeffrey Field’s DON’T GO THERE we were sure we had found a perfect fit. It’s most of all a great read, much like another script of his NO MAN’S LAND, that Oren Uziel (The CLOVERFIELD PARADOX, 22 JUMP STREET) is slated to produce.

DON’T GO THERE is perfectly aligned with what we are looking for: strong artistic merit while keeping overhead low. It’s a contained piece much like a DON’T BREATHE or STRANGERS where the storytelling is quite effective and insanely suspenseful. It totally subverts expectations.

There’s another element that excited us: a very strong, well-written role for a seasoned female actress.

DON’T GO THERE, we believe, stands up to the best in the crop of social thrillers that are making successful (critical and commercial) runs at the box office right now.