''Flesh and Sand'' ( es, Carne y arena) is a 2017 American short

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

project written and directed by

Alejandro González Iñárritu Alejandro González Iñárritu (; American Spanish: ; credited since 2016 as Alejandro G. Iñárritu; born 15 August 1963) is a Mexican filmmaker and screenwriter. He is primarily known for making modern psychological drama films about the hu ...

that plunges "viewers into the harsh life of an immigrant".Peter Aspden
"Carne y Arena: Alejandro Iñárritu’s virtual reality project"
Financial Times, August 11, 2017 It was created by Iñárritu and cinematographer

Emmanuel Lubezki Emmanuel Lubezki Morgenstern (; born November 30, 1964) is a Mexican cinematographer. He sometimes goes by the nickname Chivo, which means "goat" in Spanish. Lubezki has worked with many acclaimed directors, including Mike Nichols, Tim Burton, ...

in collaboration with ILMxLAB with support from

Legendary Entertainment Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC ( doing business as Legendary Entertainment or simply Legendary) is an American film production and mass media company based in Burbank, California, founded by Thomas Tull in 2000. The company has collaborated ...

and the Fondazione Prada in Italy. ''Flesh and Sand'' (''Carne y arena'') premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival as part of the official selection and was the first virtual reality project to ever be featured at the festival. It was later featured at the Prada Foundation in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, attracting significant international attention for its highly innovative character as well as its strong political message. It was awarded the first Special Achievement Academy Award in over 20 years by the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

Synopsis

The film places the viewer among a group of migrants who are led by a coyote across the Mexican border into the U.S. until they are stopped by the border patrol. The story is based on interviews Alejandro G. Iñárritu did with Mexican and Central American refugees about their life stories. Benjamin B of ''American Cinematographer'' remarked, "The extraordinary achievements of the virtual reality process has been admired for it brings the viewer back before Lumière brothers invented public screenings with projectors... much like the Edison Kinetoscopes in the Nickelodeon parlors in the early 1900s." "Virtually present, physically invisible", Iñárritu's sub-title for ''Carne y arena'', describes how VR changes the nature of the audience.

Cast

* Hector Luis Bustamante * Omar Castaneda * Toy Lei

Reception

''Flesh and Sand'' (''Carne y arena'') has received an overwhelmingly positive response since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2017. and continues to receive popularity and acclaim exhibiting at the Tlatelolco University Cultural Center in Mexico City, the Fondazione Prada in Milan, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Acclaimed for its success in creating a new experience to engage more senses and emotions than film by using VR technology, ''Carne y arena'' was described by

Germano Celant Germano Celant (11 September 1940 – 29 April 2020) was an Italian art historian, critic and curator who coined the term " Arte Povera" (poor art) in 1967 and wrote many articles and books on the subject. Work Germano Celant was born in Genoa ...

as "a fusion of identities arises: a psychophysical unity in which, by crossing the threshold of the virtual, the human strays into the imaginary and vice versa. It is a revolution in communication in which seeing is transformed into feeling and into a physical engagement with cinema: a transition from the screen to the gaze of the human being, with a total immersion of the senses."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Flesh And Sand 2017 films 2017 drama films American drama short films 2010s Spanish-language films Films directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu Virtual reality films Films about illegal immigration 2010s English-language films 2010s American films