If there's one message to take away from the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, it's this: When it comes to storytelling, there are no limits. Take the Festival's massive lineup of experiential filmmaking, which covers the various facets of virtual reality and will challenge audiences to interact with everything from endangered northern white rhinos to the real-life horrors of solitary confinement and the viscera-covered horror of '80s splatter movies. While Tribeca's Storyscapes program and the first-ever Virtual Arcade will span across multiple days throughout the Festival, though, one specific day will be dedicated to the brightest thinkers and innovators from the worlds of media, art, gaming, technology, and activism—in other words, the epitome of limitless storytelling.

Tribeca Film Institute has announced the full lineup for the fifth annual TFI Interactive, an all-day immersive event at Tribeca 2016, supported by Time Warner Foundation. Scheduled for Saturday, April 16th, TFI Interactive will be split up into three sections: the MakerSpace, the Conference, and the Interactive Playground exhibit.

"Through TFI Interactive, we're proud to offer creators the opportunity to reimagine the world that we live in," says Opeyemi Olukemi, Senior Director of Interactive Programs at TFI. "As technology is ever-evolving, our program offers ample opportunity for speakers and audience members alike to generate new ideas, collaboration and conversation. We're particularly excited to see the expansion of the Interactive Playground, the breadth of Conference speakers, and the launch of the MakerSpace this year."

TFI Interactive's MakerSpace is a new addition to the Festival and will feature leaders from Black Lives Matter, IBM, IDFA Doc Lab, and Stanford Mechanical Engineering Design Group, as well as the filmmakers behind the TFI-funded new media projects Notes on Blindness and The Argus Project. The Conference lineup, meanwhile, will include speakers/pioneers like Matt Johnson, CEO and Co-Founder of Bare Conductive; Joanna Peña-Bickley, Global Chief Creative Officer at IBM Interactive Experience; Dr. Doron Friedman, Senior Lecturer, Sammy Ofer School of Communications, IDC Herzliya; and Jeff Moss, a.k.a. Dark Tangent, the founder of DEF CON and Black Hat. Enrica Beccalli’s interactive installation/performance COMPLESSITÁ will close out the Conference section.

The Interactive Playground will complement the Virtual Arcade in its dedication to experiential, technology-driven projects, including FAMOUS DEATHS, which recreates the final moments of deceased celebrities' lives through sound and scent captured within mortuary freezers; TETRAGRAMS, a collaborative smartphone mashup of Tetris and Tangrams; BB-8 DROID, an app-enabled droid that explores the limitless possibilities of connecting humans with machines; PEARL, a mobile VR film about a country-music-playing father/daughter team, created by Google Spotlight Stories; QUINN, a live-action, choose-your-own-adventure story set within an escape room; and FORMA, a multi-person VR experience in which the users become Golem figures.

Media support for TFI Interactive will be provided by Observer and Digiday. TFI-invited guests, TFF badge holders, Festival Hub pass holders, TFI Interactive event ticketholders, and TFI Members are all encouraged to attend. For information on how to become a TFI member, please visit: https://tribecafilminstitute.org/membership. To buy a TFF badge or pass, please visit: https://tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets.

The TFI Interactive schedule is as follows:

Conference (full detailed lineup follows): 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Playground: 12 p.m. – 9 p.m.; and MakerSpace: 12 p.m.—7 p.m.

TFI INTERACTIVE – CONFERENCE PROGRAM & SCHEDULE (Time, Segment, Presenter):

11:00 Welcome Remarks: Opeyemi Olukemi — Senior Director, Interactive at Tribeca Film Institute
11:03 Story Keynote
11:20 Technology Talk: Joanna Peña Bickley — Global Chief Creative Officer at IBM Interactive Experience
11:30 Community Talk: Mariana Santos — Director Interactive at Fusion
11:40 Maker Talk: Matt Johnson — CEO and Co-Founder of Bare Conductive

12:00 MakerSpace Activity: IBM's Joanna Peña Bickley — Global Chief Creative Officer at IBM Interactive Experience

1:00 Technology Keynote, Harlo Holmes — Digital Security Trainer
1:20 Community Talk: Melissa Malzkuhn — Director at Motion Light Lab
1:30 Maker Talk: Kipp Bradford — Founder of kippkitts
1:40 Story Talk: Andrew Essex — CEO, Tribeca Enterprises

2:00 MakerSpace Activity: Dr. Barbara Karanian — Lecturer/Founder Design
Entrepreneuring Studio, Stanford University

3:00 Community Keynote: Samuel Sinyangwe — Policy Analyst, Data Scientist, Cofounder of Campaign Zero
3:20 Maker Talk: Sougwen Chung — Artist
3:30 Story Talk: Mike Kamber — War Photographer, Cofounder of Bronx Documentary Center
3:40 Technology Talk: Jessica Brillhart — Principal Filmmaker for VR at GooglGoogle

4:00 MakerSpace Activity: TFI + IDFA Doc Lab’s Musical Crowd Experience

5:00 Maker Keynote: Kristin Neidlinger — Futurist Designer
5:20 Story Talk: Jasmine Lobe — Observer Columnist
5:30 Technology Talk: Dr. Doron Friedman — Senior Lecturer, Sammy Ofer School of Communications, IDC Herzliya
5:40 Community Talk: Dark Tangent — Founder of the Black Hat and DEF CON computer hacker conferences

6:00 Closing Remarks: Anna Ponder — Executive Director, Tribeca Film Institute
6:05 Closing Performance: Complessità

TFI INTERACTIVE – MAKERSPACE PROGRAM & SCHEDULE:

MakerSpace Level I: Located within the TFI Interactive Playground, this space will allow the audience to create small interactive projects through a hands-on open workshop. Activities will include Bare Conductive’s Electric Paint Series, iPhone Holograms, and Kill Your iPhone Faraday Cases.

Accessible from 12—7 p.m.

MakerSpace Level II : Across three sections of the TFI Interactive Conference, the audience will participate in a series of exercises, led by industry experts, that will encourage building cross-disciplinary relationships with fellow conference-goers.

12—1 p.m. Joanna Peña Bickley — Global Chief Creative Officer at IBM Interactive Experience
2—3 p.m. Dr. Barbara Karanian — Lecturer/Founder Design Entrepreneuring Studio, Stanford University
4—5 p.m. TFI + IDFA Doc Lab’s Musical Crowd Experience

MakerSpace Level III Delving into the central social issues of two projects supported by the TFI New Media Fund, participants will have the opportunity to learn and actively explore particular problem sets facing two distinct communities. The sessions focus on technology’s ability to both enable – in the experience of the blind – and hold powerful and official forces accountable.

12—2 p.m. Notes on Blindness
2—4 p.m. The Argus Project

About Tribeca Film Institute: (http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org)

Tribeca Film Institute champions cutting-edge storytelling for social change in our communities and around the world. Each year, we identify a diverse group of exceptional filmmakers and media artists then empower them with funding and resources to fully realize their stories and connect with audiences. Further, our education programs empower students through hands-on training and exposure to socially relevant films, offering young people the media skills necessary to be creative and productive global citizens. We are a year-round nonprofit arts organization founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in the wake of September 11, 2001.

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