On Tuesday the Netherlands Film Festival announced the nominees of their annual Golden Calf Award for ‘Best Interactive’ film. The new award celebrates filmmakers for exploring new technologies or methods of storytelling in a dramatic or documentary production. Congratulations are in order for the nominated directors this year – Eefje Blankevoort & Els van Driel, Jan Rothuizen & Sara Kolster and Floris Kaayk – who also have another thing in common in that they are all WDCD alumni!
Both Eefje Blankevoort and Floris Kaayk graced the stage of our What Design Can Do conference in Amsterdam last June. In her talk, Blankevoort spoke about her unique brand of creative, constructive social journalism, and her latest project, entitled ‘De Asielzoekmachine’ or ‘The Asylum Machine’. The project, now nominated for the Golden Calf Award, examines asylum policy in the Netherlands and researches how we would like it to work. The narrative is explored through several web documentaries, a tv-and radio documentary, and exhibitions and meetings across the country.
The project for which Floris Kaayk is nominated is equally non-traditional in form. Told through a series of 50 clickable videos, Kaayk’s ‘The Modular Body’ is an online science fiction story about the creation of Oscar, a modular living organism built from human cells. Like much of his work, ‘The Modular Body’ makes use of a new kind of fictional storytelling, allowing us to imagine the potential consequences of technological progress.
Drawing Room
The third and final nominated project belongs to artist Jan Rothuizen, who spoke at WDCD 2015 on the heels of his award-winning interactive documentary Refugee Republic. This year he strikes again with the ‘Drawing Room’, a 360º virtual reality drawing that viewers can experience through Oculus Rift glasses, Google cardboard or the browser from a tablet or computer. Check it out for yourself: visit the installation on the fifth floor of de Bijenkorf Amsterdam on the 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 17 and 18 of October.
All three boundary-pushing projects are now in the running for the Golden Calf, and the winner will be announced at the L’OR Gouden Kalveren Gala on Friday, 30 September. Want more info? Visit the Netherlands Film Festival website for all the details.