Pacific Gateway: Angel Island VR

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Pacific Gateway: Angel Island VR

41 Ross
May 16, 2018 11:00 am Free

Description

Journey across the bay to Angel Island in this fully immersive virtual reality experience, exploring the poignant stories carved into the walls of the “Ellis Island of the West.” In her first foray into this new digital medium, veteran filmmaker Felicia Lowe uses the historic Angel Island Immigration Station to shine light on a dark part of America’s past.

Exteriors of the island and interiors of the station serve as the backdrop to the virtually unknown story of immigrants detained and interrogated after passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned laborers from entering the United States for more than 60 years before finally being dismantled with the signing of the Immigration Act of 1965. Those held on the island for long periods carved poems into the walls, forever etching their voices at what is now national historic landmark. Lowe weaves beautiful animations created by animator Ruth Lingford with historical images and 360-degree footage, shot by cinematographer Justin Chin, of Angel Island to bring the poems and memories of those detained to life.

This is a free event.