Virtual Reality Experiences About Women Created by Women

Seven years ago I decided I wanted to pursue a career in the vr industry. Since then, I had great inspiration from lots of professionals, and I never questioned myself about the fact that being a woman could make it more difficult for me. What was difficult, was the fact that I wasn’t a programmer, or developer. I was a production, marketing, and communication profile, and I was in love with the VR narratives. That’s niche!

But while I was trying to get into the VR industry I joined a group in Facebook called Women in VR, and there, not only I got a grant to attend the Oculus Connect, but also my first job into a 360 shooting in LA, and later on, the opportunity to work on the amazing VR experience Fight Back. I found lot of encouraging creators in this industry, and I wanted to share today with you 5 virtual reality experiences about women, created by women:

The Choice VR by Joanne Popinska, Fight Back VR by Celine Tricart and Marie Blondiaux, Reimagined Volume I: Nyssa by Julie Cavaliere and Michaela Ternasky-Holland, Another Dream by Tamara Shogaolu and Mrs. Benz Voyage of Discovery by Eloise Singer.

Another Dream

Produced by Ado Ato Pictures and directed by Tamara Shogaolu, Another Dream is a VR animated documentary experience that brings the gripping, true love story of an Egyptian lesbian couple that faced with a post-Revolution backlash against the LGBTQ community and had to escape Cairo to seek asylum and acceptance in the Netherlands.  Traditional 2D and 3D animation is combined with animation hand painted in the virtual space and the audio recordings of the young couple.

https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=8131307021390501511

Another Dream had its world premiere as one of five projects in Tribeca Immersive’s select Storyscapes competition from 2019.

 «I wanted to share their story in a way that would best honor their experiences and voices — and share them in a way that challenges the stereotypes and even erasure of women of color, queer people, and the Muslim community that is too often presented by the mass media. Working toward these goals naturally led our team to experiment with new ways to share their story.” – Tamara Shogaulo, Director/Creator (fragment from her interview at MIT Open Documentary Lab)

Fight Back VR

Under the cover of a thrilling and fun adventure with hand tracking enabled, FIGHT BACK is an introduction to self-defense techniques as an answer to gender-based violence.

The participants discover a dreamlike world where stars are disappearing in the sky, replaced by mysterious entities of darkness. Inspired by Empowerment Self Defense, Fight Back utilizes the unmatched potential of VR as a tool for learning and developing muscle memory, mental skills, and confidence while shining a light on stories of courageous women. The players are invited to learn combat methods, simple stances, and techniques at each level: to identify danger, to resist the threat, and finally, to fight back. It was designed to be accessible to a wide range of audiences including VR beginners.

The experience is available today on App Lab for free in English, French, and Spanish, and I am honoured to have contributed on the marketing side of this amazing project.

“We tap into VR’s incredible educational and therapeutic potential to develop instincts and muscle memory and to encourage participants to continue exploring the benefits of self-defense. In this sense, FIGHT BACK VR has the potential and heartfelt desire to save lives. This project has already changed my life. I am eager to share it with the world.” Céline Tricart

Mrs. Benz: Voyage of Discovery

https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=8249951219520365505

Mrs. Benz: Voyage of Discovery is the untold story of the woman behind the name. Set in Germany in 1888, Mrs Benz dives into the perspective of a courageous woman who invested her reputation and inheritance in her husband, Karl Benz, and his ‘horseless carriage’ invention. 

Karl Benz has just been awarded a patent for the world’s first motorcar known as the ‘horseless carriage’, but it counts for nothing unless the sceptical public and press can be convinced. Whilst Karl is a great engineer, he lacks confidence in his invention. Instead, it is his courageous and determined wife Bertha who recognizes that the car must be shown to the world in order to change public perception. At a time when women were expected to adhere to the 3 Cs of Children, Church and Cooking, Bertha stole her husband’s Motorwagen to travel 120km with her two children —making his car world-famous in the process. 

By combining escape room puzzle mechanics with environmental storytelling, the experience lets us step into Bertha’s shoes, explore a workshop and discover her fascinating backstory. Search for the blueprints of this revolutionary contraption, learn how to assemble its engine, and finally experience the feeling of wonder and awe as you drive the world’s first car out of the workshop and embark on a road trip that will change the course of history.

Directed By Eloise Singer and produced by Siobhan McDonnell from Singer Studios, the experience is making its USA premiere at SWSX this month.

“I was compelled to tell this story of ingenuity and determination against all the odds because Bertha Benz was a woman with a single-minded vision who played a pivotal role in shaping technology and revolutionising travel. With incredible foresight, tenacity and courage, Bertha’s vision for the future has shaped the course of history. Telling the story in VR, truly brings the narrative to life allowing the player to undergo her struggles, relive her journey and experience her vision of showcasing the first car to the world.” – Eloise Singer

Reimagined Volume 1: Nyssa

The debut title from Very Cavaliere Productions is the first chapter of a series of reimagined stories.

Inspired by the lesser-known Brothers Grimm story, A Tale of the Boy Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was, NYSSA encapsulates the strange and often complicated journey of female self-actualization. Directed by Julie Cavaliere, NYSSA ultimately asks the question of what would happen in our own world if we gave girls the space and guidance to “find their chant” as they grow and mature.

In the story, Nyssa originally sets out into the unknown to save her best friend, Broom but instead learns the meaning of fear and how to harness it in order to save her village from the wrath of the evil Teemencaag.

The experience was hand drawn and animated in VR using Quill by the talented Syro Studio and is available on Meta Quest TV in the following link.

“In our story, bravery is not a one size fits all concept- it is ever-changing. It is learning to hear and trust your intuition. Although beginning as a naïve but precocious girl, Nyssa’s journey teaches her that instead of blindly avoiding everything that frightens her, she must turn inward during moments of uncertainty and speak her truth from there” 

The Choice

https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=9022610099915689972

An interactive VR documentary, The Choice presented a series of testimonies and stories where women talk about their choice to have an abortion. 

In this first chapter, we meet Kristen, a young Native American woman. She talks about her and her partner’s longing for a child, their joy when she became pregnant, and the immense sadness when after 20 weeks it turned out that their unborn child had serious physical abnormalities. The title thus has a double meaning—it is about the actual choice that women make, as well as the freedom of choice that they are denied in far too many parts of the world. As you talk to her about her experience, the initially empty space around you gradually fills with animated line drawings that reinforce the story which is already so poignant. It blends techniques from traditional documentary storytelling, personal conversation, and animation, using virtual reality and interactivity to redefine not only how we tell the stories, but how the audience experiences them and connects with the subject on a deep, emotional level.

This VR documentary was directed by Joanne Popinska, a polish-Canadian creator who was deeply moved by her home country’s actions that resulted in a near-total abortion ban in Poland in 2020.

“I went about making this film in part as a sociologist, understanding the power of one-on-one conversation. When you put just two people in the room and let them talk, then things happen. That’s the whole idea behind The Choice. Of course, as a filmmaker I want this to be experienced as art, but I also want to get out the message to activists that VR is a powerful tool. We want activists to know that VR is not scary, and it’s not just for geeks and gamers! It’s a really valuable tool for the abortion rights movement. We have gotten really strong reactions from people, anti-abortion people who have had big changes of mind and heart.”- Joanne Popinska

These are just some of the amazing VR stories about women created by women, which I love and inspired me a lot, please share and add your own favourites!