As a co-founder of Tiny World Productions, a small Berkeley-based studio specializing in immersive content, I create, teach and consult on immersive stories. Our year in review (2017 can be found here). We teach workshops for Berkeley’s Advanced Media Institute.
Crafting Stories for Virtual Reality, a book on immersive journalism co-written with Melissa Bosworth will be published November, 2018 by Routledge. For book-specific updates please subscribe to our Tiny Letter.
For a bit more on Tiny World Productions you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
A selection of Tiny World Production’s 360 video work can be found here:
From Seed to Smoke: The Women of Washington States Cannabis Industry (Forthcoming 2018)
Immigration and Health in California:
Since 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has protected over 800,000 immigrants from deportation. In September 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the executive order would end, unless approved by Congress.
Each of these four 360 video portraits tells the story of a different DACA recipient living in California. This was a 4-part series done for Fusion Media Group in collaboration with the Rise Up: Be Heard Fellowship training young people in California to report on health and immigration issues in California.
Special thanks to the VR Creators Lab, YouTube Space Los Angeles, Google and The California Endowment
Teaching the Future | A DACAmented Teacher
Since graduating from Penn, Erick Silva, 23, has been teaching. He currently teaches ninth-grade world history in San Jose, California. Silva is one of about 9,000 DACAmented teachers according to the Migration Policy Institute. “It’s so weird how to some people, it’s just policy. To my community, its our lives,” says Silva. Teaching is his form of advocacy.
Lakshmi Sarah: Producer, Melissa Bosworth: 360 Editing, Music: Lazy Salon – Autocollants.
Creating Change | You Can Make Change
“This is what I’m doing with my life: I’m creating change and creating positive energy to bring to my community,” says activist, mother and DACA recipient, Marinarde Soto, 19. Rise Up: Be Heard reporter, Juan Avila met with Soto in Fresno to talk about youth activism and identity.
Lakshmi Sarah: Producer, Melissa Bosworth: 360 Editing, Juan Avila: Reporter, Johnsen Del Rosario: Fixer
Coming Out of Two Closets | We All Have Dreams
Luis Gomez, 28, reflects on Jeff Sessions announcement rescinding DACA: “I felt more determined to work to ensure the dignity and the rights of our immigrant communities.” Gomez describes his experience as a DACA recipient working at the LGBT Center Orange County.
Lakshmi Sarah: Producer, Melissa Bosworth: 360 Editing, Music: Nihilore (F*ck Yeh Capitalism)
18 & DACAmented | What Makes America Great
At Kochi Biennale, Art Imitating Death: An Artist at Work | The Daily 360 | The New York Times (2017)
The Kochi-Muzirus Biennale is one of the largest exhibitions of contemporary art in India. Follow Yardena Kurulkar as she installs her work, “The Dance of Death.”
‘Dead Before the Fire Even Came Through’ | The Daily 360 | The New York Times (2017)
Trees hit by drought and disease are contributing to a longer, more extreme forest fire season in California (California Today newsletter).
Life on the Streets of San Francisco (2016)
Done in conjunction with San Francisco media “Day of Homeless Coverage” June 28, 2016.
“Homeless people are people who are down on their luck,” Iversen says. “Then there’s girls like me, who were really seriously physically and sexually abused as children.” She is currently living near Indiana Street and Islais Creek Channel, but she’s planning to move shortly because she expects an influx of people to the area when the temporary Pier 80 shelter closes July 1 (excerpt from KQED).
The Wait: Inside the Lives of Asylum Seekers in Germany (2016)
European Newspaper Congress, 2018; Finalist, Online News Association Student Award, 2016
In late August 2015, 71 migrants were found dead in the back of a truck in Austria. The image of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi’s body washed up on the shores of Turkey barely a week later became a symbol for the refugee crisis. Germany opened its doors to refugees from all over the world, and specifically those fleeing Syria.
Since then, the narrative in much of mainstream U.S. media has echoed with overwhelming numbers: “Germany to Spend $6.6 Billion on 800,000 Refugees and Migrants,” “Germany is taking in more refugees in 2015 than the U.S. has in the past 10 years,” and “Germany’s refugee bill to top $22 billion.”.
The current humanitarian problem has been touted as one of the worst refugee crises since World War II. This project aims to provide perspectives absent from much of the current news on refugees around the globe — a peek into what life is like for those who have made it to Europe in search of safety, freedom, and better lives.
In January 2016, we conducted interviews with asylum seekers in five different German cities. This new media project tells their stories in text, animation, interviews and 360 video.
Lakshmi Sarah 