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SEVEN GRAMS review by TECHVANGART

In a recent article, Techvangart reviews the best movies and XR experiences from the Sundance Festival 2022. Here is what they write about our project Seven Grams :

“A former war correspondent and photojournalist, Karim Ben Khelifa has been experimenting with new ways of practicing journalism, using emerging media as a way to engage audiences. 

After the success of VR experience The Enemy, Karim Ben Khelifa teams up once again with Lucid Reality’s executive producer Chloé Jarry. This time, using AR, you can witness the human cost that goes into producing smartphones in five chapters – 3 AR and 2 video materials.

The AR phone is remarkably smashed, so you can see each component. And each component is carefully analyzed.

Users will find out why each component is important from 

(1) a technical point of view when they use the phone,

(2)what rare minerals contain and ways these minerals are obtained;

(3) And the human cost of it: abuse and human exploitation linked to mineral extraction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It highlights how the perfect scheme work: fancy advanced phones for the world, and Congo remains without minerals, but with poverty.

Besides the technical and cold-analysis carried out, you will have in the end also personal stories highlighted.

A ineffaceable experience, all chapters are a balanced blend between cold-rigorous analysis specific to investigative journalism and emotional storytelling, highlighting the personal aspect of systematic abuse.

And knowing all these, interestingly enough, the director chose to present the whole story… on the sc(re)ene of the crime – directly on your mobile phone. As if while you are watching, it would ‘force’ you to admit… ‘even, right now, we are all part of it’.”

Source : https://techvangart.com/2022/02/03/techish-futuristic-films-sundance-2022

SEVEN GRAMS, official selection at the SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

We are proud to announce that our project Seven Grams has been selected for the Sundance Film Festival 2022 in the category of New Frontier.

The category offers a powerful and bold selection of different projects and performances that make use of immersive technology to embrace the next era of digital storytelling.

Directed by Karim Ben Khelifa and coproduced by Lucid Realities, France Télévision, POV-Spark and Think Film, with the support of CNC and Occitanie region, Seven Grams has the aim to present the hidden ethical issues behind the production of personal electronical devices (smartphones, computers, etc.) and how this production relies on the exploitation of mineral extraction, process which affects physically and mentally many inhabitants of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who must deal with extremely bad working conditions.

The Project, thanks to the technology of augmented reality, dives the viewer into the reality and the process of the hidden costs of our electronical devices. This ethical issue is also presented through a short animated movie illustrated by TT Hernandez, which tells the story of Chance, a young man that has lived and survived the brutally experience of working for the mineral resource extraction.

SEVEN GRAMS, en sélection officielle AU FESTIVAL DE SUNDANCE 2022

Nous sommes fiers d’annoncer que notre projet en réalité augmentée Seven Grams a été sélectionné au Sundance Film Festival 2022 dans la catégorie New Frontier.

Cette catégorie offre une sélection puissante et audacieuse de différents projets et performances qui font appel aux nouvelles technologies et narrations immersives.

Réalisé par Karim Ben Khelifa et coproduit par Lucid realities, France Télévisions, POV-Spark et Think Film, avec le soutien du CNC et de la région Occitanie, Seven Grams propose, d’une façon radicalement innovante, de découvrir le lien entre votre smartphone et les conditions souvent dramatiques dans lesquelles sont extraits les minerais rares nécessaires à sa fabrication, en particulier en République démocratique du Congo.

Mêlant réalité augmentée et séquences d’animation, Seven Grams vous raconte cette histoire, vous propose de découvrir les minerais utilisés dans votre smartphone et leurs particularités uniques. A travers un récit poignant et émouvant, Seven Grams vous propose de remonter la chaîne de production de nos smartphones et d’appréhender leur coût humain.


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