NYT VR | THE DISPLACED | 2016
Putting a Million People Face to Face with Refugees, Through VR / NYT VR "THE DISPLACED"
The New York Times tucked one million Google Cardboard viewers into copies of its Sunday paper. Inside was an 11-minute VR documentary called "THE DISPLACED." Readers who opened it up found themselves standing right in the middle of a refugee camp. The following year, it won two Grand Prix at Cannes.
The problem
In 2015, 60 million people had been driven from their homes by war and persecution, and half of them were children. It was the biggest crisis since World War II, but for many people it still felt like a distant, hard-to-grasp story. The New York Times chose VR as the tool to close that distance.
The insight
Director Imraan Ismail kept the camera at a child's eye level throughout. He framed shots where the children looked directly into the camera, so viewers couldn't look away. Not statistics, but a gaze. Not numbers, but the face of one child standing right there.
The idea
The film follows the daily lives of three children in 360 degrees: Oleg in Ukraine, Chuol in South Sudan, and Hana in Syria. In the scene where aid supplies are dropped from the air, the roar of a jet overhead makes you look up, and in that instant the scene cuts—suddenly you're standing in the middle of a pile of food sacks. In the scene where a child is given a camera, your own view becomes the view from the child's hands.
What happened
Over one million units were distributed, making it the most successful launch in the history of the NYT app. In 2016, it won two Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions, in the Entertainment and Mobile categories.
Afterthought
"I used to think it was someone else's problem, far away. But seeing these children up close through VR made me want to help right now"—one reader's response. It's been 119 years since photographs first appeared in newspapers. Now, with nothing more than a cardboard headset, people can stand right next to a child's eyes.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2016
