The Italian Virtual Reality film Vajont from director Iolanda Di Bonaventura and producer Saverio Trapasso was selected at the close of the fourth edition of the Biennale College Cinema – VR to receive support from La Biennale to cover its production costs.

Vajont will also now participate in the Venice Virtual Reality section in the 77th Venice International Film Festival set for September 2 – 12, 2020.

Vajont, the interactive first-person VR experience is set in the Vajont valley, a few hours before the disaster. The story is centered on a dialogue between a husband and his wife: the woman senses the danger and wants to leave; her husband dismisses the idea that there is any danger at all. What stops us from leaving the places we feel we belong? Can we accept the idea of having to protect ourselves from something that is part of our own identity – the place we grew up in?

Director Iolanda Di Bonaventura was born in L’Aquila, in 1993. She is a visual artist and a director. Her work focuses on the environment as a constituent part of one’s personal identity, and on finding new technical and creative languages, that can support artistic expression and communication.