European premiere of Miri Chekhanovich and Édith Jorisch’s VR work Plastisapiens at IDFA

October 20, 2022 – Toronto – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The virtual reality work Plastisapiens, written and directed by Miri Chekhanovich and Édith Jorisch in collaboration with Dpt., will have its European festival premiere in the DocLab program at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), taking place in-person from November 9 to 20, 2022.

Plastisapiens had its world premiere in June of this year in New York City, as part of the Tribeca Festival’s Immersive program. It also recently premiered in Canada at Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma Horizon VR competition, October 5–16.

This 15-minute VR work was produced in Montreal by Dpt., the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and Israel’s Lalibela Productions.

Created for Quest 2 headsets, Plastisapiens is a virtual reality journey towards a speculative future where organic beings and plastic become one. Plastisapiens will premiere at IDFA with the “Plasti Kitchen Lab,” a molecular gastronomy kitchen where Miri Chekhanovich will use DIY cooking techniques to create edible plastics that participants can see, touch, smell and eat, in a new installation created specifically for DocLab.

More about Plastisapiens
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/plastisapiens

• What is the future of human identity? Plastisapienstakes you on a soothing and playful virtual reality journey where organic beings and plastic become one. As we are gently guided through an awe-inspiring universe of hybrid bodies, we are ultimately left to ponder how the interchanging relationship between humans and the environment transforms our identity, right down to our DNA.
• Édith Jorisch is an award-winning screenwriter and director based in Montreal. Her 2017 documentary The Heir was honoured with two Prix Gémeaux.
• Miri Chekhanovich is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose work has been exhibited internationally, including Being With, presented by the PHI Centre at the Venice Biennale. 
• Plastisapiens was produced with the financial participation of the Canada Media Fund, the NFB, Makor Foundation for Israeli Films, the Israel Film Council and the Ministry for Culture and Sports. It was conceived as part of New Identities, a co-production partnership in digital creation between Canada and Israel.

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