The Messy Metaverse-How to create a meaningful connections online

After 1.5 years of lockdowns, what have festivals, cinemas, museums, and theater performers learned from their many and very different online and virtual experiments? What are the biggest learnings and discoveries from trying to translate the physical and social human experience into a cold and cumbersome digital platform?

Looking back on various failed and successful experiments online and in virtual reality, key industry players across different disciplines explore the future of digital and virtual events and exhibition. What can cinema, theaters, festivals, and museums learn from each other?

Are there elements of the sudden boom in online events, performances, and social gatherings that can or should be taken into a post-COVID-19 world? Did they provide an awkward glimpse into the metaverse, the new frontier that tech giants are pushing with virtual reality and other technologies to remove the boundaries between the physical and digital world?

How do we move on from here? Is there a digital baby to be saved from the bathwater?

Speakers: Jody Arlington (SXSW, USA), Marc Lopato (Diversion Cinema, FR), Valentine Umansky (Tate Modern, UK), Andrew Lin (Ohyay, USA – joining remotely through zoom), Gilles Jobin (CH).
Moderator: Amy Dotson (Northwest Film Center, USA)