Two Projects By Columbia Filmmakers Run at Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival

By
Felix Van Kann
April 01, 2021
Project Immerse by lead artist and Associate Professor Lance Weiler

Two projects by Columbia filmmakers are set to show at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX) from April 21 to May 2. Both Project Immerse by lead artist and Associate Professor Lance Weiler and Privy To, a project for which alumna Michelle Leddon '00 serves as Creative Director, will participate in the online Inter:Active line-up which comprises a total of 13 new projects. The pieces are a mix of film, extended reality, and digital art, and will be presented as live events in this year’s hybrid festival.

Weiler’s Project Immerse is billed as a paranoid thriller that takes its origin in the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon and explores the nature of misinformation, radicalisation and deception while attempting to draw the audience into a real true crime experience.In Privy To, the Assembly (Michelle Leddon, Julia Scott-Stevenson and Liz Steininger) invite composer and multimedia artist Jason J. Snell to participate in its investigation into the concept of privacy. Through a re-engineered EEC (electroencephalogram) and PPG (photoplethysmogram) headband and a computer programme Snell’s brainwaves and heartbeat signals are captured and then translated to music and an accompanying visual display. The experience is based on Snell’s physical and mental reaction to three different emotional states—isolation, intimacy and exposure. The first two are pre-recorded, the final one performed live on webcast for the audience.

Lance Weiler is a storyteller, entrepreneur and thought leader. An alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, he is recognized as a pioneer because of the way he mixes storytelling and technology. Weiler spent over 10,000 hours on film sets working his way through the ranks. He trained as a Camera Assistant and then worked extensively as a writer, director and producer, developing TV and film properties for FOX, TNT, Starz and Endomel. Weiler has advised and consulted programs and initiatives for IBM, Twitter, Microsoft, Samsung, Chernin Entertainment, Ubisoft, Penguin Books, the U.S. State Department, CAA, Ogilvy, McCann-Erickson and others. He has also served as an advisor and mentor to educational programs and labs for organizations such as the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, PBS, Power to the Pixel, Screen Australia, Berlin Film Festival, the National Film Board of Canada and the National Endowment for the Humanities. At Columbia, Weiler is the director and founding member of the Digital Storytelling Lab which is focused on exploring new forms and functions of storytelling.

Michelle Leddon is a collage artist, filmmaker, privacy worker and member of the cosmopolitan proletariat living and working in Berlin.

Project Immerse by lead artist and Associate Professor Lance Weiler

CPH:DOX is one of the biggest documentary film festivals in the world. Supported by film professionals as well as the national press, CPH:DOX grew from 12,000 admissions in its first year in 2003 to a record-breaking total of 114,400 admissions in 2019. CPH:DOX continues to develop and expand, presenting a program that ranges from the works of major international directors to new talent, from large-scale theatrical releases to film/video works in the field between cinema and visual art.