BYSTANDING

• SILVER at the TELLY AWARDS
  “Immersive & Mixed Reality - Social Impact”
  (The premier award honoring video and television across all screens)

• GOLD at The LOVIE AWARDS
  "Best Virtual Narrative Experience"
  (Honouring the Best of the European Internet \ Selected by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, IADAS)

• GOLD at The w3 AWARDS
  "Best Immersive Documentary Experience"
  (illuminating Brilliance in Digital Experiences, Content, and Creativity \ Selected by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts)

ABOUT
In 2009, Jasmine Feingold, an Israeli rowing champion, lost consciousness and capsized with her rowing boat in Tel Aviv's Ha’Yarkon River. Despite being submerged underwater for 5 minutes, none of the dozens of nearby bystanders jumped into the water to assist her.

‘Bystanding: The Feingold Syndrome’ is an immersive interactive VR docufiction that recreates the Tel-Aviv riverbank from the summer of 2009. Participants have the opportunity to wander the riverbank, experience the perspective of bystanders, listen to their thoughts, and witness their deepest confessions from that day.

By stepping into the shoes of the bystanders, participants explore the question, “Why didn’t they act?”

Utilizing novel techniques such as volumetric capture, photogrammetry, animations, and 360º videos, each bystander confession is presented as a unique subjectivity, providing insight into their stream of consciousness.

At its core, ‘Bystanding’ aims to reflect on the tension between its subject matter and its medium—the passive bystanders witnessing Jasmine’s accident and the interactivity of participants in the VR experience. Through this tension, the docufiction delves into the causes and impacts of The Bystander Effect, a socio-psychological phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when others are present.

Leveraging its immersive nature and emotionally charged story, 'Bystanding' creates a powerful memory for participants and prompts questions about our responsibilities towards others.

‘Bystanding’ was selected to be a part of the Israeli National Culture Program, an educational initiative that exposes highschool students, to culture and art as part of the formal Israeli education system.

CAST & CREW
The experience was created by Nim Shapira (Director) and Roi Lev (Creative Producer). It is co-produced with German studio AnotherWorld VR (Max Sacker and Ioulia Isserlis) and Canadian studio KngFu. ‘Bystanding’ is supported by the Israeli, Canadian and German film funds: Makor Foundation for Israeli Films, Gesher Multicultural Film Fund, KAN (the Israeli public broadcaster), Mifal HaPais Council for the Culture and Arts, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (MBB).

Michael Moshonov (BBC’s “The Little Drummer Girl”), Kais Nashif (Best actor, Venice Film Festival 2018), Tsahi Halevi (Netflix’s “Fauda”), Nelly Tagar (“Zero Motivation”, 2014 Tribeca Festival Winner), Orly Zilbershatz (“Broken Wings”, Berlin Film Festival), Yiftach Klein (“Fill the Void”, Venice Film Festival)

PRESS

• XRMUST: "The inherent power of VR is to change our perspective on a story"

• Cannes XR - Presentation of XR3 Virtual Exhibition

• LA PRESSE: “FNC celebrates virtual reality”

• FIVARS: “a chilling voyeuristic event where a womna’s life in danger, is further threatened by the inaction of the onlookers“

• HAARETZ: “The boat capsized, Jasmine was about to drown, people were standing and watching - what would you do?”

• PRTFL: “New storytelling platforms are constantly being added“

• WALLA!: “People watched someone in distress and did nothing. This is what we wanted to explore.”

• YNET: 5 Must-see artworks at the Design Week in Jerusalem

• VRfocus: “Cannes, Tribeca And NewImages Launch XR3 Exhibition @ Museum Of Other Realities”

• XPORT by Bezalel Academy of Art: “Exploring Empathy, Delving into Memory, and Developing Coping Skills Using Virtual Reality“

• SenseXR by Sense Of Space: "A Volumetric VR Film Showing The Potential Of The Technology"

• ICE: “Bystanding will premiere at the Tribeca Festival”

FESTIVALS

June 2021

• Tribeca Film Festival, Immersive Non-Fiction Competition (New York)

• VR NOW Awards, Best Immersive Cinema Nominee (Germany)

July 2021

• Cannes Film Festival: Marché Du Film, XR3 (France)

• Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Beyond Reality
  (South Korea)

• Jerusalem Design Week

August 2021

• ACM SIGGRAPH, Immersive Pavilion

• DOQUMENTA \ Festival Internacional de Cine Documental⁣ (Mexico)

September 2021

• Open City Documentary Festival, Expanded Realities (London, UK)

• Carmel International Short Film Festival (Israel)

• Tokyo International Short Film Festival (Winner, Best VR)

• Roma Short Film Festival (Honorable Mention)

• Fullshot Cine Mag Fest (Winner, Best VR)

• New York Tri-State International Film Festival

October 2021

• The W3 Awards (GOLD for "Immersive - Best Documentary Experience")

• Festival Du Nouveau Cinéma - (Montreal, Canada)

• Kaohsiung International Short Film Festival (Taiwan)

• VRE - Virtual Reality Experience (Italy) 

• New Wave Short Film Festival (Winner, Best VR)

• FIVARS, The Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories (LA)

• Toronto Indie Filmmakers Festival (Finalist)

November 2021

• Aesthetica Short Film Festival (York, UK)

• The Lovie Awards, honoring the best of the European Internet:
  Nominated for "Best Narrative Experience" by the International
  Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences

• Swedish International Film Festival (Winner, Best Digital Narrative)

THE CONCEPT

As we delved into the medium of VR, we were captivated by the extent to which  participants wanted to be active and interact with the experience. We were curious about contrasting this desire for active participation with a forced experience of passivity and inaction. In particular, we found ourselves thinking about the Bystander Effect, a socio-psychological phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present.

As we looked for a story through which to explore these themes, we remembered Jasmine Feingold and knew right away her story was the one to tell. Not only was it documented in real-time, but because the victim was not visible during the incident, there was no possibility of racism or ageism hindering her rescue.

When we think about this kind of tragic event, we often focus on the victim and automatically judge the bystanders for their inaction. Who are these people and what was going through their minds? ‘Bystanding’ allows participants to put the judgement and blame on hold and take on the perspectives of the actual bystanders, the ones who witnessed Feingold’s accident that day. However, participants cannot change the course of events; they can only use the medium of VR to step outside of their own shoes and into another’s.

THE EXPERIENCE

The experience starts as the participants find themselves slowly hovering above Tel Aviv’s Ha’Yarkon River. Feingold, who survived the incident, sets up the tone for the experience by describing the events that took place from her point of view. The narration, as well as the hovering, ends as participants are suspended exactly above the capsized boat.

Next, participants find themselves wandering in a hyper-realistic representation of the park along the river. All around them, volumetric scans of bystanders stand frozen in time, not moving or acting, much like the real people back in 2009. From that moment, the clock starts ticking, Feingold is underwater, and the participants have five minutes to decide which bystanders they will meet and which confessions they will hear. Will they run into the good samaritan who saved Feingold’s life?

To make their selection, the participants literally step into a bystander’s shoes and experience the event from their point of view. Participants may meet a wedding photographer, a young mother, a man of faith, a paramedic, a recluse or an environmental activist. Each of the bystanders' confessions is an animated video in a unique style specific to them and based on research and interviews with the actual bystanders from that day. To give life to the bystanders, enhance the emotional journey of their confessions, and protect their anonymity, we leveraged the talent of an award-winning cast. 

During the experience, all confessions are taking place simultaneously. As a result, participants cannot bear witness to all of them but must only select a few. This interactivity, contrasted with the linearity of the counting down clock, is a key aspect of the experience. 

After five minutes of the participants’ attempts to identify the good samaritan, the scene automatically transitions to the actual video footage filmed that day by one of the bystanders. In it, participants see the person that arrived at the riverbank five minutes after Feingold capsized but immediately jumped into the river and saved her life. 

CREATIVE EXPRESSION THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

Through videogame software (Unreal Engine), ‘Bystanding’ pushes the boundaries between a real-time linear experience and a non-linear interactive structure. The park was reconstructed using photogrammetry, giving it a hyper-realistic feel. The bystanders were captured with high-fidelity volumetric video technology, enabling participants to walk around the dozens of people in 6DoF. 

Once participants enter the bystanders’ shoes, they transition into a 360º stationary state. We decided to use 360º videos for the confessions to reinforce the bystanders’ passivity. Like them in their inaction, the participants are rooted in place, listening to the bystanders’ thoughts, watching their confessions, but ultimately unable to do anything. 

Each confession was created by a different artist using a visual style selected specifically to highlight the  bystander’s subjectivity. For instance, the paramedic’s confession is based on instructional CPR charts, the cameraman’s confession is a film noir scene that takes place in a dark room, the recluse’s confession is based on psychedelic distress, and the young mom’s confession is a 3D vision that reflects on the medium of VR itself. At the end of each stream of consciousness, the participants are dropped back into the park, suddenly aware that the clock is still ticking and no action has yet taken place.

The VR experience ends with a final transition from the hyper-realistic park to the actual footage from the accident, implicating the participants in the inaction of the bystanders and reminding them that this is a true story who’s consequences continue to plague Feingold to this day. 

‘Bystanding’ explores the agency of participants as they are thrust into various identities, trying to understand the bystanders through their confessions. In doing so, the experience raises questions about our individual and societal responsibilities towards other people in distress, both victims and bystanders.

We hope 'Bystanding’ and its innovative format will follow participants to the next time they see someone in distress. Perhaps they will recall their experience of forced passivity and take action instead. We already began seeing glimpses of these positive responses from an initial user test of the experience where participants felt compelled to share their own experiences, both as victims and passive bystanders. We are continuing to research the potential impact of ‘Bystanding’ and how it affects participants weeks or months after the experience. 

While this project started before the global pandemic, ‘Bystanding’ is relevant now more than ever. With growing social responsibilities and persistent inequalities exacerbated by COVID, we would like to empower our participants, as well as ourselves, to step out of our comfort zone and help. We may not be able to truly step inside someone else’s shoes or know the full extent of their lived truths, but we can try to step outside our own shoes.

In a time when skimming article headlines has become the norm, taking a step outside our own shoes and towards another’s perspective is even more crucial. We live in a society that is content with intense polarization, classifying everything as right or wrong, good or bad. ‘Bystanding’ seeks to inhabit the grey zone by giving space and depth to each bystander. Could they have done more? Yes, they could have. But does that make them ‘bad’? Perhaps it makes them human. We believe that one of the biggest challenges our global society is facing today is an empathy deficit. We cannot challenge the Bystander Effect without first trying to understand the bystander.

We hope you find ‘Bystanding’ as eye-opening and meaningful as its process of creation was for us.

- Written by Nim Shapira & Roi Lev, Edited by Yaara Yacoby, 2021