With a medium as intense as VR, there's so many questions to ask. Who's telling the story, why, how? How do we watch it and feel connected to our bodies and each other? What do we want to learn more about?
Join us during the Friday Happy Hour at The Ruby for a thoughtful dip into a VR film directed by Iranian artist, animator, storyteller Négar Motevalymeidanshah, creator of the 7 minute short animation called Less Than 5 Grams of Saffron that premiered in Venice 2025.
Words from Négar:
"Less than 5 Gr of Saffron tackles a subject we think we’ve already seen too much of: the often tragic circumstances under which many migrants flee their home countries in search of a better future. A hundred times, stories of shipwrecks and the numbers of those drowned have filled our screens, anonymous people who disappear from our memories with a snap of the fingers. The project evokes our capacity to identify profoundly with a survivor by placing her in a universally familiar-preparing a meal. In today’s extremely violent context, this empathetic experience helps to rekindle within us a common humanity, whether we have experienced such trauma firsthand or not."
Made in Quill, music by Kian Portorab, Laurent Vang, lead developers Amaury Campion, Michaël Bolufer, produced by Ten2Ten Films (Gwenaëlle Clauwaert) with Atlas V, and iNK Stories. Shown on Meta Quest Pros.
https://atlasv.io/project/less-than-5gr-of-saffron/
About the artist:
Born in 1986, Negar is an Iranian filmmaker, animator, and conceptual artist. She began her artistic journey studying graphic arts at Azad University in Tehran, before pursuing a Master’s degree in the Erasmus Mundus program « Reanima ».
In 2021, she left Iran for Belgium, where resuming her studies profoundly transformed her artistic path. Her work explores societal issues and cultural complexities, deeply marked by her separation from her country.
As a freelancer, she now works on animated films, video games, storyboards, music videos, and more, embracing both traditional and digital forms. Today, she is creating her first virtual reality animation, using the unique Quill software.
About the organiser:
Danielle Giroux: "For some VR is about escapism, others is about embodiment. For this inaugural screening of a VR film at The Ruby we will share together a work from this world of VR Storytelling that speaks volumes about the WHY VR question. For some in SF, VR might be dead, but for others in different parts of the world, there's interesting sparks of light. This is a tool with potential.. as dystopian as utopian. The WHY VR and HOW VR questions are part of the immersive story club research, currently being incubated at Gray Area. "