Oculus Rift gets test run at Montreal International Documentary Festival

For the first time ever, the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) is screening two interactive documentaries created for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

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Patricia Bergeron is a programmer for the new technologies section at the RIDM.

Its not about tomorrow ... its right now-PatriciaBergeron, RIDMprogrammer

She says the festival wants to give Montrealers a chance to experience the potential of the new technology.

One of the interactivedocumentaries, CLOUDS, won the award for best transmedia project at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

The equipment is fairly new and hard to get so its great to see it at RIDM. This is definitely what filmmakingand videogame-making is leaning towards. Its a kind of interesting part of the future of cinema," saidElieZananiri, interactive designer forCLOUDS.

The second documentary, Assent, by Chilean filmmaker Oscar Rabyis an immersive autobiographical documentary inspired by the filmmaker's father's experience during the coup in Chile in 1973.

There are also other projects in the works here in Montreal. The National Film Board's Digital Studio is developing two interactive documentaries that also usethe Oculus Rift.

The first Oculus Rift headsets that will be available to the general public arealso getting help from Montreal.

Montreal'sFelix & Paul Studiosproduced the virtual reality demo for the at-home version of Oculus Rift Samsung's Gear VR Innovator Edition.

CLOUDSand Assentarescreening in the user experience room (theUXdoc room) set up by RIDM at the Cinmathque qubcoise for the duration of the festival to Nov.23.