Grenfell: Our Home – Community Screenings

In June 2018, Virtual Umbrella was hired by Parable to deliver community screenings of their immersive documentary, ‘Grenfell: Our Home’.

The experience focuses on peoples’ lives before the fire of 14th June 2017 and has been described as ‘an essential VR documentary’.

‘Rather than dwell on the well-trodden news lines, the piece is about their homes in the tower, with their plants, artefacts and hand-drawn murals sensitively reimagined through animation.’

The Guardian

We are incredibly proud to have been able to support the community surrounding the Grenfell Tower. And, alongside our partners, we knew how important it was to present the piece in the right way.

We took the film to a number of locations in West London, bringing viewing opportunities to local people using 12 GearVR headsets, Samsung S8 phones, and noise cancelling headphones. To give a communal feel to the screenings, we also ran the viewings simultaneously using Showtime syncing software. This meant that everyone could view the piece at the same time, finishing collectively for shared decompression and discussion.

Our team were on-hand throughout to ensure everything ran to schedule and without error. Some of the most important work, however, focused on providing context and support.

We delivered opening briefs to our visitors to ensure they understood what they would be seeing, and how it might make them feel. It was also our responsibility to make sure they were aware that resources were available on site to assist them if needed.

We are grateful to Parable for the opportunity to work on a project that we care so deeply about and to the NHS for providing mental health support staff to provide comfort to those affected.