Once A Glacier Melting Hearts @SXSW 2023

FERNTV loves the whole premise of Once A Glacier. The VR film directed by Jiabao Li was entered into the XR Experience Competition during SXSW 2023. The TED speaker and Assistant Professor at the University of Texas reflects on her experiences in Alaska. Jiabo Li brings you up close and personal to that world in a VR Platform. Specifically focusing on a young girl and her relationship with a glacier. The unfortunate part of the story is that as the girl grows up, the existence of the glacier is threatened. She tries to save the glacier by putting a part of it in the freezer. This was one of Li’s highlights of living two years in Alaska.

In the Inpuiaq tradition, an indigenous tribe believes glaciers have memories of the past and communicated them in song. Director Jiabao Li points this out by recording the sound of the glaciers. The break up of ice in Alaska is called Tagish in the local indigenous language. It is also the name of their tribe that gives it this term.

You can hear the glaciers when you don the VR Headset and immerse yourself in Jiabao’s world. The stunning visuals and the intimate portrait of glaciers in Alaska is mind-blowing. It will remind you how important it is to preserve these structures and not lose them to climate change.

Local Storytelling in VR Format

What is astounding about Once A Glacier is that it is telling you a local story about a global problem. The approach that director Jiabao Li is delivering her story to the audience is creative and above all courageous. She could have taken the easy steps of making a simple documentary film about climate change in Alaska. Instead, she allows you to immerse into her youthful world of the magic that surrounds glaciers. In virtual reality, you become more emotionally tied to not only her character but the glacier she has a relationship with.

Once A Glacier does not take the form of the common fearmongering story that shows the harmful effects of climate change. Instead, Jiaboa Li takes a more personal and intimate approach. It will have more of a more profound effect on its audience. This style of storytelling will bring about more awareness and change to the way we approach and handle climate change. When we immerse ourselves in situations like this and in faraway places like Alaska through VR, we make that connection in a digitally heartfelt way.

Isn’t it time to smell what Jiabao Li is conjuring up with Once A Glacier? The VR Experience is multisensory meaning you will able to smell a glacier too. They contain a glacier moss that will make you feel cold instantaneously. But all glaciers melt differently. As well as everyone’s hearts when they immerse in the Once A Glacier VR Experience. Please click below for a FERNTV interview with Jiabao Li.

https://www.jiabaoli.org/once-a-glacier