Summary:

Kabaret is an interactive VR experience about synchronized coral spawning and a singing shrimp’s worries about the future. It’s a playful and explorative journey from the edge of our galaxy to the depths of our oceans. We strum out a chime on glowing phytoplankton, swim through a portal of seafood aspic – the titular “Kabaret,” a dish once popular in Norway – and are carried by the moon to a coral reef in mating season. But all is not well here.

Can we help save the coral’s yearly spawning? Kabaret is part musical, part documentary, and invites us to indulge our curiosity about the natural world and reflect on our relationship to it.

Director Bio:

Gina Thorstensen (1980, Norway) is a multi-disciplinary artist who works with animation, Virtual Reality, drawing and sculpture, among other mediums. “Kabaret” is her first VR experience as a director and producer.

She has shown her work in several exhibitions, such as the solo shows “Brotan” (2016) and “Cosmogonías” (2018) at Galeria Cromo in Barcelona. She has worked as an illustrator, muralist, and art director on several animation films, most recently “The Island” (2022) by Anca Damian. She has directed and made artwork for many animated music videos. She holds a B.A. in art from La Escola Massana in Barcelona and an M.A. in film and new media from the Norwegian Film School.