The UN launches its VR app, teeing up with filmmakers from around the globe to share their 360 videos, and highlight global issues. Via Adweek:
“[T]he UN is launching UNVR, a mobile app that will be a destination for VR films created by the UN and filmmakers around the world. Thanks to partnerships with Samsung and Oculus, the intergovernmental organization is using its massive reach to distribute 360-degree camera gear to more than 100 UN countries so filmmakers can tell their own stories about where they live.
The goal is to “democratize VR,” Arora said, putting cameras in the hands of creators of different races, different genders, different classes, different beliefs on every continent. Gear has already been shipped to about 10 “hot spot” places like Aleppo, Congo, Gaza, with a larger rollout planned for mid-October.
“I always see this project as an incredible nexus of people who are in the policy world, the tech world and the Hollywood world, the filmmaker world,” he said. “Rarely do those three come together, and I think that UNVR makes this compelling for all of those people.”
The UNVR app won’t just be about watching compelling stories. In fact, the goal is to add a call to action to each film as a way to connect viewers who are moved by a cause to a way to help. That might be through volunteering time, donating money to a nonprofit or hosting a viewing to spread awareness.