Alumna’s immersive journalism project slated for Sundance Film Festival

By Jeremy Rosenberg  An experimental “immersive journalism” project with a USC Annenberg genesis has been selected to appear at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. “Hunger in Los Angeles” was written, produced and directed by Nonny de la Peña, an Annenberg Program on Online Communities alumna and former USC Annenberg senior research fellow. The work is scheduled to be part of the New Frontier portion of the Utah event. “It didn’t feel real until recently, when I received my contract,” de la Peña said. “This crazy idea that I’ve been trying to get off the ground for two years.” De la Peña’s six-and-a-half minute interactive news piece allows one user at a time to enter a virtual reality, gaming-style environment set in the midst of a food bank distribution line located outside the First Unitarian Church, on 8^th Street in Los Angeles. During the eventful – and non-fiction – segment, the Church’s available food runs out, provoking anguish and frustration among some of those gathered. Meanwhile, a man in line falls to the ground in a diabetic coma. An ambulance and two paramedics arrive to assist. The piece, like de la Pena’s other works and writing, explores the difference between the objective and the subjective, as well as re-imagines manners of creating and delivering contemporary journalism. “Hunger” was crafted in part by using video game development and 3-D platform software, a head mounted display and an audio recording made in 2009 by a student intern as part of the USC Annenberg journalism professor Sandy Tolan-led effort, “Hunger in the Golden State.” Read the full article