Is it a town whose reason-to-be is tourism, as the short-term holiday industry is defining it, or home to a diverse population, many of them working independently of holiday-makers and their requirements?

Byron Bay Film Festival director J’aimee Skippon-Volke is firmly of the opinion that the region is moving very nicely with the times in the take-up of new and ever-changing technologies that can cover the spectrum from entertainment to education, and attracting the experts in such technologies – often work-from-home types.

“Alongside tourism, Byron has for decades been a place that creative individuals have sought to call home: musicians, writers, artists and actors have traditionally made up a sizeable proportion of the region’s population.

“Unbridled short-term holiday letting and a crazy housing market have conspired to make it increasingly challenging to live here – but Byron remains a hub for creative talent, and they are people who are at the cutting edge, as our Film Festival’s Extended Reality offering this year shows.

“Byron Shire Council has allowed us to be the first to make use of the town’s newest public space, the Railway Corridor to host an exploration of creative innovation this month, with a three-day presentation of 360 degree films and other multi-dimensional immersive experiences in a large Projection Dome.

“Festival goers will be able to enjoy the work of local artists and experts in the field of Extended Reality (XR), which is the intersection between immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) and enabling digital technologies like Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT), AI and Web 3.0.  Among those contributors are members of the newly formed Byron XR Collective, which boasts some of Australia’s most talented practitioners.”

As well as the films, the 16th Festival will present free panels and masterclasses exploring present and potential applications for the Metaverse, NFTs and more.

Funded by Festivals Australia, the BBFF XR Dome allows the festival to build on its reputation as a key facilitator of world class Virtual Reality experiences and to deliver accessible immersive content to the community without the need for VR Headsets.

“We actually transitioned into delivering film content in VR and presented two physical festivals during the pandemic but we held off on delivering Virtual Reality sessions due to the constraints of Covid,” Ms Skippon-Volke says.

“The Dome Activation allows us to give more people the opportunity to experience some of the world’s best immersive content – much of it created right here in the Bay.”

Festivals Australia was behind the transition into immersive screen technologies when BBFF created and delivered the first Federally-funded VR Arts program, ncube8.

“The impact of that funding has helped the Festival build a very special community-based professional XR network and then help build the framework for the region to grow as a hub for immersive technologies in Australia. It’s exciting to think what might come from this latest investment from the Federal Office for the Arts in our region,” Ms Skippon-Volke says.

Byron Shire Mayor, Michael Lyon, applauded the forward thinking of the Byron Film Festival: “The Byron Bay Film Festival is one of the region’s most visionary and innovative, and we are happy to make public space available for such a significant event.

“We know that talented young people have been willing to endure the terrible rental housing situation here, in order to maintain and feed off the creative network, and find inspiration in our stunning natural environment.

“Over its 16 years the Byron Bay Film Festival has gone from strength to strength, gaining international respect and attracting visitors both interstate and globally. It has helped put us on the map as a centre of culture and ingenuity, which is great, but Council is also taking serious steps to try to ensure that such people can continue to live here, and contribute to the community in a way that is not catering to or dependent upon tourism.”

A highlight of the weekend is the World Premiere of Marga – an exquisite 360 degree “extended reality” journey into the ceremonies of the Yindjibarndi people of the Pilbara made by Byron Bay filmmaker Dominic Allen.

Led by Yindjibarndi elder Lorraine Coppin and featuring stunning sacred song and dance, Marga is an immersive expedition across ancient country that takes us back in time to meet the Marga (creation beings) who made the world using the songs of the Burndud (law).

Part mythology, part cultural history and part contemporary traditional law practice, Marga combines 8K 360 footage with scenes of giant puppets traversing ancient lands to give us greater insight into the cosmology and culture of one of our country’s First Nations.

In 2018, Dominic brought the acclaimed VR work Carriberrie to the Byron festival, a documentary celebrating Indigenous Australian song and dance, including that of the Northern Rivers’ Arakwal people. Carriberrie will return to BBFF but in Full Dome format for a shared audience experience with a Q&A with Allen and Awakwal Custodian Delta Kaye who features in the film.

Starting each day with panel events, BBFF’s Dome XR will then play sessions of cutting-edge immersive films and experiences and special events which include interactive content and live performances.

Experience new physical and digital realities at the BBFF XR Dome, from October 28-30.

To learn more about the Dome, visit www.bbff.com.au/dome

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