OTTO director Michael Beets set to guest at Melbourne International Film Festival VR panel

OTTO director Michael Beets is set to premier his Virtual Reality documentary, Jafri at the 65th Melbourne International Film Festival next week along side numerous talks and events. The VR documentary explores Jafri, a silent activist for racial equality utilising the immersive Virtual Reality technology that drops you into the world of Jafri as he guides us through his daily life and the intimate moments that shaped his views on the world and himself.

Learn more about the film here.

Beets’ work centres around immersive content, commercials, and digital experiences. He thrives on exploring how traditional storytelling can be converged with new media, and this VR documentary is a bold foray in VR narrative storytelling. Beets has a cinematic quality to his work and is also a beautiful visual storyteller.

Beets and OTTO worked with PLaTO Reality, the newly formed VR production company to produce this exciting new work.

Beets will also be speaking at MIFF’s Virtual Reality masterclass; on a panel made up of Australian VR filmmakers to speak about the cutting-edge technology, immersive storytelling and the challenges of virtual reality. To learn more about the masterclass, click here.

Beets has also been invited to talk at Open channels Generation Next conference.  Beets will join the conference in a Q&A discussing his career and how his process as a multidisciplinary artist and how its important to think outside the box when pursuing a career in the screen industry. Learn more about the conference here.

To add to Beets’ busy month Jafri has been added to the Kaleidoscope World Tour, a travelling virtual reality festival showcase the worlds best cinematic virtual reality as well as being invited to screen at Visa Pour L’image in Perpignan, France. 

Tune in to the conversation hour with Jon Faine at 11am on ABC Radio Melbourne 774 to hear Beets discuss Jafri on the 11th of August or listen http://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/conversations/ after the show.

To view more of Beets’ work, click here or contact Sophie or Jo at OTTO.