New Project From ‘The Revenant’ Director Could Foreshadow Future of Film

Alejandro González Iñárritu's 'Carne y Arena' is a six-and-a-half-minute performance art piece.

August 19, 2017 5:00 am
Oscar-Winning Director's New Film Short Could Change Cinema as We Know It
Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu attend the 'Carne Y Arena' photocall during the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 22, 2017 in Cannes, France. (Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

If the name “Alejandro González Iñárritu” doesn’t ring a bell, his work surely will. He’s the mastermind behind award-winning films such as The Revenant and Birdman, a four-time Oscar winner himself.

As Esquire reports, though, the Mexican director’s latest work, entitled Carne y Arena (i.e., “Flesh and Sand”), may be a game-changer for the film industry.

At just 6.5 minutes long, the film short is experiential, to say the least. It can only be “viewed” after driving 20 minutes to an airplane hangar filled with sand, surrounded by wire fencing, with your shoes off, and an Oculus Rift headset strapped on. Viewers also have to wear headphones and a backpack. The scene: You’re in the Sonoran Desert, witnessing a Border Patrol confrontation with immigrants.

As Esquire‘s Marc Jacobson explains, “The experiential installation is as visceral as it sounds—a fully realized virtual reality that is at once deeply isolating and profoundly intimate.”

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