Preserving Memory, Imagining the Future: Ukrainian stories in XR

About Preserving Memory, Imagining the Future: Ukrainian stories in XR

Beyond the frame: how Ukrainian creators use immersive tech to document, remember, and imagine. Sensorama & Scopic Lab

Join us for a conversation with Olena Stulii, Head of Creative at Sensorama, exploring how immersive technology is reshaping the way we remember, document, and imagine Ukraine.

Storytelling doesn't have to stay within the frame. In this keynote conversation, Olena will take us beyond traditional moving image into the world of virtual reality, augmented reality, and 360° documentary - mediums that let audiences step inside a story rather than simply watch it. It's an invitation to dream collectively, and to experience firsthand how these tools can hold space for both memory and hope. Olena will shine light into how Ukraine's creative and technical community are building capture workflows for documentation, developing new approaches to immersive narrative, and treating presence itself as a form of witness.

Olena will showcase projects Sensorama has been involved in. One example is War in VR – a series of 360° videos produced and created by The Game Changers during the first days after the liberation of some Ukrainian cities.

Also will be presented a VR training simulator developed for UNESCO specialists, designed to teach them how to assess damage to cultural heritage sites. The Hryhorii Skovoroda Museum in the Kharkiv region and the House of Scientists in Odesa were digitally scanned, allowing users to walk through these locations in VR and see firsthand the consequences of attacks and scale of damage.

Olena will also talk about the development of Arina’s Story, a UNITED24 project created with the support of Microsoft and contributions from a number of Ukrainian companies, including ISD Group, Deep3d Studio as well as Sensorama, and others.

Special Screening:
Festival guests will also have the opportunity to watch the 360° film “Shelter” produced by Scopic Lab – a virtual reality documentary directed by Sjors Swierstra (The Netherlands) and co-directed by Ivanna Khitsinska (Ukraine), offering an intimate look at the war in Ukraine. In Shelter, the audience is invited to step into a virtual space with people from Ukraine, to witness moments of shared humanity and reflect on the cost of war.

The event is free to RSVP with a suggested donation to Razom!
Ther event will be in English.

Date: October 25, 2026
Time: doors open 12pm, screening starts 12:30pm
Location: QUAD CINEMA (34 W 13th St, New York, NY 10011)