SONA 2026

SELECTION

Our second selection showcases the depth and diversity of immersive storytelling, bringing together works that challenge perspectives, spark conversation, and push the boundaries of VR, AR, and 360° media.

We chose these experiences for their artistic innovation, emotional impact, and ability to engage audiences in new ways. This program reflects SONA’s mission to explore immersive media as a space for bold, meaningful storytelling and to highlight voices that are often overlooked. You will see these pieces throughout the festival, in our VR Spaces, Immersive Room, and featured at our evening events.

Registration

Step into new worlds and unique experiences at the SONA Immersive Storytelling Festival.

April 2–4, 2026
Carnegie Mellon University

Act One VR Field Trip: Season Two (10:00)
Director: Naureen Rizvi
COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
Screening: VR Lab

  • Rooted in Indigenous teachings of gratitude, this immersive experience responds to the urgent crisis facing Indigenous youth. Drawing from the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, viewers are placed within environmental and cultural landscapes that emphasize connection, care, and relational belonging. Language, song, and ambient sound reinforce a sense of continuity across generations, species, and places, offering reassurance that no one exists in isolation.

    Táhila Moss is an Indigenous Yaqui artist whose work blends technology, community engagement, and ancestral knowledge. Through immersive storytelling, she addresses themes of healing, cultural resilience, and environmental responsibility. Her internationally recognized practice centers Indigenous perspectives while fostering global collaboration and dialogue.

As Tall as the Heart (6:51)
Directors: Flavio Mayerhofer
& Leonardo Pinheiro
COUNTRY: Brazil
Screening: VR Lab

  • Daily commutes become moments of testimony as three performers move through Rio de Janeiro. Their stories unfold not around diagnosis, but around work, relationships, and presence in the city. By foregrounding lived experience and collective conversation, the film challenges medicalized narratives and opens space for dignity, visibility, and shared reflection.

    Flavio Mayerhofer and Leonardo Pinheiro are Brazilian filmmakers whose work focuses on documentary portraiture, performance, and social context. Their collaborations explore visibility, labor, and cultural participation.

Ancestral Gratitude Bridge (11:44)
Director: Táhila Moss (aka Mintz)
COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
Screening: VR Lab

  • Act One VR Field Trip: Season Two invites participants into a 360° audiovisual journey through the work of Indigenous artists in Arizona. Weaving Our Story explores themes of cultural heritage, storytelling, music, public art, and craft through immersive encounters. Designed to expand access to arts education, the experience connects young audiences with local voices, traditions, and creative practices through virtual field trips.


    Naureen Rizvi is the Director of Virtual Reality at Act One, a Phoenix-based nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to arts and cultural experiences for children and families. Her work focuses on equity, education, and the creative use of immersive media to connect communities with artists and cultural institutions.

Blackstar Sanctuary (16:35)
Directors: Marques Redd
& Mikael Owunna
COUNTRY: US / UK
Screening: VR Lab

  • Guided by the Rainbow Serpent, participants enter a vast temple shaped by queer African spiritual and cosmological traditions. Deities, ancestors, and long-suppressed histories populate this sacred space, inviting ritual, transformation, and affirmation. Moving through the environment becomes an act of reclamation, restoring narratives erased by colonial and heteronormative frameworks.

    Marques Redd is a traditional African cosmologist, filmmaker, and multimedia artist whose work centers the reclamation of Indigenous African knowledge systems. Mikael Owunna is a Nigerian-Swedish American artist and engineer whose practice bridges technology, cosmology, and visual culture. Together, they co-founded Rainbow Serpent, a Black LGBTQ art and technology organization.

Diatribes (20:00)
Director: Veronica Graham
COUNTRY: UNited States
Screening: VR Lab

  • A surreal internal landscape unfolds as participants navigate anxiety, distraction, and emotional contradiction. Movement through this world becomes a way of confronting climate paralysis, unlocking myths, and pushing past self-imposed barriers. The journey asks what it means to keep going when the future feels uncertain.

    Veronica Graham is a visual artist and educator working with digital media, interactive storytelling, and print publishing. She founded the experimental studio Most Ancient and has exhibited work internationally. Her VR projects have been supported by Meta and shown at festivals including FIVARS and IndieCade. She teaches virtual reality at Stanford University.

Happy Shadow (25:00)
Director: Pei-Ying Lin
COUNTRY: Taiwan
SCREENING: Kenner Immersive Space

  • A diary, a dust spirit, and a living shadow form the entry points into Joey’s inner world. Participants collaborate with her shadow to solve puzzles and face buried fears, using their own shadow as a tool for discovery. The experience moves between confusion, wonder, and healing, tracing a path toward emotional repair.

    Pei-Ying Lin is a visual artist whose work focuses on emotional states and embodied expression. Her VR projects have received international recognition, including support from TAICCA and selection for Venice Biennale College Cinema VR. Her practice bridges visual design, performance, and interactive storytelling.

HUMAN (15:00)
Director: Débora Bergamini
COUNTRY: Brazil
Screening: VR Lab

  • A contemplative journey inspired by the Voyager Golden Record invites participants to reflect on humanity’s desire to communicate across distance. Set within a space-bound XR environment, the work considers connection, responsibility, and our shared planetary future through a quiet, immersive encounter.

    Débora Bergamini is an award-winning Brazilian artist and cultural producer with over fifteen years of experience in multidisciplinary practice. Recognised as a national leader in collective cultural production, she was among the youngest recipients of the São Paulo State Government's Memory and Belonging Award in 2024. She is a co-founder of the International Forum of Brazilian Culture in Europe and a key figure in the internationalization of Brazilian culture. HUMAN is her directorial debut in immersive storytelling.

In the End (12:00)
Director: Yun-Ni (Winnie) Tsai
COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
Screening: VR Lab

  • Touch leads the narrative as participants step into the role of Death. Still, diorama-like scenes depict final moments of life, while haptic gloves translate emotion into sensation through distinct heartbeat patterns. Release is felt through resistance or surrender, leaving behind traces that linger after each encounter.

    Yun-Ni (Winnie) Tsai is a multidisciplinary producer and technical designer working across immersive media. With a background in mathematics and dance, she bridges analytical systems and embodied experience. Winnie is part of TACIT, a Carnegie Mellon University student team exploring novel interaction design in XR. Her work focuses on haptic storytelling, emotional systems, and experimental forms of participation.

Lychgate (9:24)
Directors: Malia Bruker
& Ilana Goldman
COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
SCreening: VR Lab

  • Lychgate reimagines The Rite of Spring as a ritual of empowerment rather than sacrifice. In this 360° dance film, a community of women gathers to honor the unknown and elevate one among them to envision what lies ahead. The work moves between the earthly and the ethereal, drawing viewers into a shared ceremonial space shaped by movement, rhythm, and collective presence.

    Malia Bruker is an award-winning director and editor working across documentary, dance film, and immersive media. Her work has screened internationally and received numerous festival awards. Ilana Goldman is a choreographer and performer whose work explores ritual, embodiment, and collective experience through movement and collaboration.

Portrait of a Street – The Story of One Street City (5:00)
Director: Arthur Earnest
COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
SCreening: VR Lab

  • A quiet portrait of Capital Boulevard in Raleigh, North Carolina, seen through the eyes of photographer Ben Harris. What began as a way to pass time during the pandemic became an ongoing act of attention, documenting overlooked storefronts, aging signage, and fragments of everyday beauty along a busy arterial road. The film lingers on the tension between movement and stillness, asking viewers to notice what is usually passed by without a second glance.

    Arthur Earnest is a filmmaker and visual storyteller whose work often centers on place, memory, and everyday landscapes. His practice draws on documentary observation and photography, focusing on spaces shaped by time, labor, and routine. Through intimate, image-driven narratives, Earnest highlights the quiet stories embedded in familiar environments.

Revealed – The Pit Camp (20:00)
Director: Judi Alston & Andy Campbell
COUNTRY: UNITED KInGdom
SCREENING: Kenner Room & VR Lab

  • We gathering around the fire to hear stories from the 1984–85 Miners’ Strike. Using VR, large-scale projection, AR, and interactive media, the work places audiences within a defining moment of British industrial history, honoring resilience, solidarity, and collective memory in Yorkshire’s coalfield communities.

    Judi Alston is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker and founder of One to One Development Trust. Her work spans film, XR, and games, grounded in community engagement and social impact. Andy Campbell is a pioneer of digital literature and immersive narrative, and co-director of Dreaming Methods. His work explores experimental storytelling across XR, games, and interactive fiction.

Silent Disco (30:00)
Director: Fabio Thieme
COUNTRY: Germany
Screening: in the VR Lab

  • Three virtual dance floors form a surreal triptych. Participants move through a folklore dance of death, a techno descent toward hell, and a disorienting strip club, experiencing collective isolation and virtual ecstasy. Each chapter can stand alone or combine into a longer ritual journey.

    Fabio Thieme is an auteur filmmaker and theater director based in Berlin. His work explores imitation, artifice, and constructed realities. He produces his films through his studio Serkalo, with work screening and receiving awards at international festivals.

Tantramar, 2100 (20:00)
Director: Elina Lex
COUNTRY: Canada
SCreening: VR Lab

  • A fragile coastal wetland becomes the site of a living archive. Through 3D scanning, archival records, spatial data, and speculative futures, the work traces how the Tantramar Marshes have been shaped by history, infrastructure, and imagination, while asking how heritage might persist in a changing climate.

    Elina Lex is a researcher and media artist working across XR, interactive documentary, and environmental humanities. She holds a PhD from Concordia University and is a member of the Immersive Storytelling Studio at the Milieux Institute. Her practice explores sensory approaches to digital heritage.

The Case of the Missing Afikomen (10:00)
Directors: Zane Swift
COUNTRY: UNited States
SCREENING: KENNER ROOM

  • Set during a Passover gathering, this branching narrative follows ten-year-old Freddy as he searches for a missing piece of matzah while navigating family tension and personal fear. Through audience choice, the story reveals layers of resilience, denial, and care, balancing childhood imagination with difficult truths.

    Zane Swift is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and editor whose work spans film and interactive media. A graduate student at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, he focuses on socially grounded stories and emerging narrative forms, including branching and immersive storytelling.

The Golden Toad (15:00)
Director: J. Dakota Powell
COUNTRY: UNited States
Screening: VR Lab

  • Surreal landscapes unfold as participants wander deserts, caves, swamps, and gardens in search of endangered species. Along the way, bone tablets are collected and the final eggs of the Golden Toad are sought. The experience encourages quiet exploration and ecological care rather than conquest.

    J. Dakota Powell is a developer, artist, and filmmaker, and founder of TimeWave Studio. Her practice focuses on immersive worlds and interactive storytelling that engage with environmental and social themes.

The Time Before (14:00)
Director: Leo Metcalf
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
SCREENING: VR LAB

  • Drifting between waking life and dream, Olly returns to childhood worlds shaped by imagination and loss. Through shifting environments, participants are invited into an emotionally and physically responsive space that reflects on memory, silence, and the long shadows of early experience.

    Leo Metcalf is a filmmaker and VR artist whose background includes radio documentary, animation, and immersive media. His work has screened internationally, including at Jihlava IDFF and Aesthetica, and he currently teaches animation at Bath Spa University.

Toilet Consciousness (3:15)
Director: Che-Kuang Chuang
COUNTRY:Taiwan
Screening: VR Lab

  • Public restrooms become portals for examining identity and power. As viewers move through surreal toilet spaces, they inhabit shifting subject positions tied to age, gender, ability, and embodiment. Everyday architecture is reframed as a site of transformation and reflection.

    Che-Kuang Chuang is a Taiwan-based artist and architect working across VR, sculpture, and conceptual design. His award-winning practice is grounded in research on space, form, and digital identity, and he teaches interaction design at Taipei Tech.

Under the Sky (DOME) (4:30)
Director: Jérémy Griffaud
COUNTRY: France
SCREENING: VR LAB

  • Watercolor drawings dissolve into a looping dome-based dreamscape inspired by Marc Chagall’s Biblical Message paintings. Edenic gardens, celestial spaces, and inner worlds overlap as hybrid figures repeat gestures across time, suggesting cycles of memory, myth, and imagination.

    Jérémy Griffaud is a visual artist working across drawing, animation, and immersive installation. A graduate of Pavillon Bosio in Monaco, his work has been exhibited internationally, including a solo exhibition at the Musée National Marc Chagall in Nice. He received an XR residency at the Villa Médicis in 2023.

Where the Water Remembers (1:45)
Director: Lily Kim
COUNTRY: UNited States
Screening: OPENING GALA

  • Waterfalls, currents, and whirlpools become metaphors for emotional distance and longing. Through abstract animation and immersive motion, the work creates a sensory environment where viewers experience the tension between immersion and separation, reaching toward feelings that remain just beyond grasp.

    Lily Kim is a multidisciplinary artist studying Fine Arts and Human–Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University. Her work combines animation, technology, and abstraction to explore emotion, identity, and inner landscapes through sensory-driven experiences.

Wild Sounds of Wales:
Life in the Trees (8:00)
Creator: Owain Llwyd
COUNTRY: UK (Wales)
Screening: VR Lab

  • At the center of this immersive work stands a single ancient oak and the ecosystem it sustains. Spatial audio, orchestral music, and VR visuals trace cycles of growth, decay, and renewal, offering a meditative response to climate anxiety grounded in deep listening and ecological connection.

    Owain Llwyd is an award-winning Welsh composer whose work spans concert music, film, and immersive media. He has collaborated with major orchestras and broadcasters, and leads interdisciplinary projects that connect sound, landscape, and heritage across Wales.

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