Canadian documentary debuting in Venice

Film explores masculinity with VR immersion

A Canadian-made virtual reality film exploring how two transgender individuals are challenging gender norms will make its international debut at the Venice Film Festival, which began Wednesday.

Made This Way: Redefining Masculinity combines an immersive documentary and an installation of photography, co-created by Toronto-based photographer Irem Harnak and filmmaker Elli Raynai.

The film was made using volumetric capturing, a technique that creates 3D video models, and allows the viewer to move through the virtual environment and around the subjects, letting them examine all the different angles of the immersive, computergenerated world.

The experience puts users in virtual environments inspired by the memories and stories of Elijah Miley, who identifies as a transgender man, and Devyn Farries, who identifies as non-binary, as they speak of their identities and transitions.

Raynai says he and Harnak wanted to celebrate the lived experience of the two individuals featured in the film.

“It’s very celebratory of what they went through. They had so much courage to be who they are,” Raynai says.

Harnak started the project in 2016 as a portrait series of transgender men. It evolved to include a VR experience after she visited the VR exhibits at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017.

The 18-minute piece will screen as part of the festival’s VR program.