March 30th, 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK, NY (March 30, 2015) —Tribeca Film Institute® (TFI) today announced the key speakers and participants for the fourth annual TFI Interactive (TFIi) event that takes place during the Tribeca Film Festival® (TFF). TFIi, with the support of the Ford Foundation, assembles the brightest thinkers and innovators for an all-day forum that explores storytelling in the digital age. Returning for a second year is the “Interactive Playground” which connects participants with a selection of groundbreaking projects.  
During TFIi, participants will come together to explore how the evolving digital world is impacting their industries and the art of storytelling. Key speakers and skilled media artists will give a series of short talks to inspire ideas and collaborations. The day will aim to encourage participants to challenge existing filmmaking standards and to embrace digital in this ever-evolving field.
TFIi will take place from 10:00a.m. – 7:00p.m. at Spring Studios in New York City on Saturday, April 18 and is open to TFI-invited guests, TFF badge holders, Spring Pass and Day Pass holders, and TFI Members.
This year’s TFIi will kick off with a keynote from artist, director, and “body architect,” Lucy McRae. Trained as a classical ballerina and architect, Lucy will share how she views the intersection of biology and technology in our physical bodies. Through fashion, technology, and her body – Lucy stretches the boundaries of traditional storytelling. The day will close with “Seven Digital Deadly Sins, Live” an interactive experience presented by IDFA DocLab and hosted by Ophira Eisenberg of NPR’s, Ask me Another. In between will be talks from creative thought leaders including Charlie Phillips, Head of Documentaries at The Guardian, and Julia Kaganskiy, Director of NEW INC, the world’s first museum incubator for art, technology and design.
“TFI Interactive showcases diverse projects that highlight innovation and interactivity through storytelling,” said Ingrid Kopp, Director of Interactive Programming at TFI. “In its fourth year, we continue to be immensely proud of how this event encourages artists and filmmakers to come together and inspire each other to make an impact in this ever changing digital world”
For the second year, TFI Interactive’s “Interactive Playground” will give participants an opportunity to explore engaging content spanning the breadth of interactivity.  Over 30 projects will be showcased ranging from virtual experiences on new tech platforms, emerging talent from NYU and Hunter College’s interactive programs, games and workshops in the Maker Space and other featured projects including:

• National Film Board of Canada’s Haiku – An evolving collection of innovative, interactive stories exploring the world - and our place in it - from uniquely Canadian points of view.
• That Dragon, Cancer – A videogame developer's love letter to his son; an adventure game to inspire us to love each other; a voice for those fighting cancer. Thank You for Playing, the documentary about the developer’s family and the process of creating the videogame, is in this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and was supported through a 2014 Tribeca All Access alumni grant.
• Priya’s Shakti – An augmented comic book that highlights the fight against gender-based sexual violence in India and around the world.

TFI INTERACTIVE – PROGRAM & SCHEDULE:
10.00 a.m. - Keynote: Training for Space
Lucy McRae, Science Fiction Artist, Director and Body Architect

Full of contagious energy Lucy takes audiences out of the their comfort zone. She articulates her relationship with the world using her own body as a mechanism for prototyping the future. And now she is training for space.

10.45 a.m. - The People’s Platform
Astra Taylor, Author and Filmmaker

Cultural commentator, filmmaker and author Astra Taylor, brings us a debate on the place of the web as a democratizing force. The Internet is said to be a space of democratic expression, both culturally and politically. This talk will examine and challenge that claim through the lenses of documentary filmmaking and activism, making the case that in order to take advantage of the democratic potential of the net we first need to be more critical about its failings.

11.00 a.m. - Using Interactive Art to Nurture the Commons
Kawandeep Virdee, Co-Founder of New American Public Art, Head of Product at Embedly

Interactive and collaborative works can bring people together and make places more welcoming - both in digital and physical space. This collective medium has the power to cultivate a multitude of narratives to create personally meaningful experiences. 

11.10 a.m. - Do Not Track
Brett Gaylor, Director, Do Not Track

Brett Gaylor is watching you - Do Not Track, also presenting at Storyscapes, takes you on a journey where you are as much the subject as the viewer. In this online series users are tracked in real time as they experience the narrative.

11.20 a.m. - The Rules of Our Digital Culture
Andrew Golis, Founder and CEO of This.

Andrew talks about how social media companies set the rules in our digital culture and how he is trying to rewrite those rules with This., a website that, according to The New York Times, has users "clamoring for an invite."

11.30 a. m. - Read all about it? The future of The Guardian in video and words
Charlie Phillips, Head of Documentaries, The Guardian

The Guardian is expanding. Already the second most-visited English-Language newspaper website in the world, what is The Guardian hoping to achieve and how is going to build and maintain an audience who may still think of it as a written news source to be visited briefly when big stories break? What does this mean for the future of the newspaper, and just as importantly, what does this mean for the factual media-maker? The Guardian's Head of Documentaries will explain the organization's current plans and map out where the digital future lies for organizations like The Guardian.

11.45 a.m. - A Campfire for the World: Doodles and Delight
Ryan Germick, Team Lead, Google Doodles

It’s a talk about Google Doodles. Need we say more?

12.00 p.m. - True Stories Told Sideways
Amy Rose & May Abdalla, ANAGRAM

Amy and May, the creators behind Door Into The Dark, will talk about creating a feeling of being lost through built environments and how they push all of our senses to create a truly immersive experience. They will also be presenting at Storyscapes, created in collaboration with BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® Gin, the third annual complimentary showcase of interactive installations and a variety of experiential programs covering a range of tech disciplines, from virtual reality to hacking.
12.10 p.m. - The Long View
Eline Jongsma and Kel O'Neill, Directors, Jongsma + O'Neill

New storytelling technologies appear every day, but great projects take years to create. Directors Kel O’Neill and Eline Jongsma talk about the four-year, ten-country journey behind their interactive documentary Empire and discuss the virtues and curses of working with cutting-edge technology.

12.30 p. m. - AT&T Hack Challenge Presentation: helloWorld
John Benton, Director, Animesh Anand, Lead Developer, Robert Ooghe, Interactive Producer

A special presentation from a month-long AT&T supported hack to create a mobile driven interactive story experience. helloWorld is a beacon-based interactive story involving hackers, surveillance and a complicated father-daughter relationship. See the prototype and hear how they did it.

12.45 p.m. - TFI New Media Fund Project Showcase Part 1

The TFI New Media Fund, supported by the Ford Foundation, funds interactive non-fiction projects around social issues. Presenting projects; Priya's Shakti - Ram Devineni, Whiteness Project - Whitney Dow, and Quipu Project – Maria Court.

1.00 p.m. - {The And} presented by IDFA DocLab
Created by The Skin Deep: Topaz Adizes, Director and Nathan Phillips, Creative Director

Special interactive documentary screening. Introduced by Caspar Sonnen, IDFA DocLab, {The And} is an interactive experience that places viewers in the the intimate space between couples.

1.30 – 2.30 p.m. LUNCH

2.30 p.m. - TFI New Media Fund Project Showcase Part 2

The TFI New Media Fund, supported by the Ford Foundation, funds interactive non-fiction projects around social issues. Presenting projects; Notes on Blindness - Arnaud Colinart, This Changes Everything  - Katie McKenna and Mike Robbins, and Oakland Fence Project - Wendy Levy

2.50 p.m. - The Right Tools
Jessica Clark, Director, Dot Connector Studio

Looking at the right tools for strategizing around media with impact - a look at the Interactive Media Impact Working Group and the tools that are being developed to support creators in this field.

3.00 p.m. - NYC to Tehran
Amar C. Bakshi, Founder & Lead Artist, Shared_Studios

Amar will discuss the work of Shared_Studios, a multidisciplinary arts, design and technology collective focused on carving wormholes throughout the world. In particular, he’ll describe how the group seeks to ground the connective potential of new technology in physical spaces to create more accessible, secure, and sacred encounters between diverse populations – from NYC to Tehran.

3.10 p.m. - See, Hear – Act?
Sam Gregory, Program Director, WITNESS

How do we use live and immersive video to drive empathetic real-time connection and co-presence with people in crisis? How could distant witnesses use their skills, networks and collective leverage to the maximum effect, and translate feeling and experience into relevant, real-time actions in solidarity and support?

3.30 p.m. - You and me as data points
Lam Thuy Vo, Interactive Editor, Al Jazeera America

Lam Thuy Vo has been creating delightful, surprising and moving experiences through data. Data sets can seem like sterile and clinical starting points for finding stories. But there's a way to find a range of human experiences within data sets, to find the individual behind the data point and to explore storytelling that connects the far with the near view.  

3.50 p.m. - Life Coaching
Matt Adams, Artist, Blast Theory

Karen is a life-coach app that wants to get to know you a little too well. Blast Theory’s project, also presenting at Storyscapes, looks at our relationship with data and technology.

4.00 p.m. - Why a Game?
Ryan Green & Josh Larson, Co-Creators, Numinous Games
If books are for telling, and films are for showing, and games are for playing, what is the medium for being? And should it matter to us? Join us as we explore videogames, narrative, and the development of That Dragon, Cancer, a videogame about loving Joel, a boy with cancer.

4.20 p.m. – Incubating The Arts
Julia Kaganskiy, Director, NEW INC.

As head of the first museum lead incubator for art, technology and design, Julia looks at how to support artists and creative entrepreneurs and create a vibrant environment for good things to happen.

4.30 p.m. - Your Experience Is the Documentary
Ida C. Benedetto, Co-Founder & Experience Designer, Sextantworks

Experience design can be used to sell products, make websites more enjoyable, or usher people into fictional worlds. But what about using experience design as a documentary art? Ida will share anecdotes from designing analogy games and trespass adventures that evoked reality in surprising ways.

4.40 p.m. - Empathy and Virtual Reality
BeAnotherLab

BeAnotherLab are presenting their Machine To Be Another in this year’s Storyscapes, a unique virtual reality experience and performance. They take the stage to interrogate what it means to understand others.

4.50 p.m. - Seven Digital Deadly Sins, Live presented by IDFA DocLab
National Film Board of Canada/The Guardian/Jam3 and Ophira Eisenberg, Host - Ask Me Another, NPR

A special interactive event to close out the day.  Test your limits.  Live. As we push the boundaries of your internet etiquette in a way that is humorous, ethical and very entertaining.

5.30 – 7.00 p.m – Reception presented by AT&T

For select images of speakers, please visit: tribecafilminstitute.org/press_releases/images/tfii_2015

TFI Members may attend TFIi for free. Find more information and a sign-up form here: tribecafilminstitute.org/support/membership

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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.

Tribeca Film Festival Spring Pass:
The new Spring Pass is on sale now at tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets or by telephone at (646) 502-5296 or toll free at (866) 941-FEST (3378). This pass will provide access to Spring Studios, throughout the Festival, including innovation talks, exhibitions, and special events, as well as a resource center, and creative workspace, with food, and drinks. This Pass will also provide reduced ticket prices for select special events. The Spring Pass costs $400, discounted to $300 if purchased before April 15.  Pass holders can invite one guest to accompany them to Spring Studios each day of the Festival. An Individual Day Pass for Spring Studios costs $50, discounted to $40 if purchased before April 15.