At various Lower Mainland locations:
Vancouver: July 7-11, 2021
North Vancouver: July 14-24, 2021
Burnaby: August 3-13, 2021
Vancouver: August 17-29, 2021
Free. Register at uninterrupted.ca
Posted July 11, 2021
If you saw filmmaker Nettie Wild’s Uninterrupted – a spectacular light and sound cinematic celebration of the life cycle of the sockeye salmon – back in 2017, you will want to see Uninterrupted-VR. If you missed it in 2017, you will want to see this virtual reality version of the original show. Bottom line: everyone should see it. It’s mind-blowingly gorgeous.
There are three locations – all outdoors – to catch it: Vancouver, North Vancouver and Burnaby (before coming back to Vancouver). Audiences are limited to 20 with Covid-19 protocols in place; pre-registration is required.
Wild says the learning curve was “vertical” from taking the show – a huge, kaleidoscopic projection on the underside of the Cambie Street bridge – to virtual reality (with participants wearing supplied VR head sets). Not something Wild had ever done before. But with a large and extremely talented and innovative creative team (in particular producers Betsy Carson and Rae Hull and editor Michael Brockington), Wild has taken the show virtual. The result is an unforgettable experience that combines art, sound, technology and science. Gone is the sense of a communal gathering on the north shore of False Creek after dark; but gained is the completely immersive nature of VR. It comes as a shock when the head set comes off after the show to discover that it’s still light, there are other people around and the world is pretty much the way you left it.
The wordless journey takes you from mature sockeye struggling up streams and rivers to spawn, to multitudes of bright orange eggs drifting lazily in the gravelly stream bed. And while it seems the cycle might end with spawned- out fish dying along the shoreline, the decomposing bodies feed the forest and the river so the cycle can start all over again. The story of the sockeye salmon is an uninterrupted one over millennia and, with vigilance and political will, it will continue into the future.
Twenty-four minutes long and free of facts and figures, it’s a visual extravaganza for the whole family. Youngest child the night I attended was about 9 or 10; I was definitely the oldest but not the only one who had never experienced virtual reality before. We were mostly VR virgins. And don’t forget the “extra features” that come with your registration: creative, user-friendly packaged online information – perfect for parents and kids to do together before or after the show.
Although each venue is outside, the audience is seated on swivel stools under canopies so weather is not a consideration. Volunteers are there to help you put the gear on. (I had no idea at all and needed all the help I could get). And should you experience any dizziness, there’s someone there to help you. Mostly, we were told, take a few deep breaths; no one in our group had any trouble. Indeed, there was one effect – the waters of False Creek appearing to rise to chin-level – that made me want to simply push off and breast stroke my way across the waterway to the lights on the far side. Another highlight was a salmon the size of Moby Dick swimming right towards me: eyeball to eyeball.
It’s epic. Artful. Thoughtful. Even, in a way, profound in its exploration of birth, death and renewal. Uninterrupted is definitely the catch of the day.