The Changing Same | Virtual Reality Experience

12 min | Sundance Film Festival, 2021

“To survive, know the past. Let it touch you. Then let the past go.”
— Octavia Butler

The Changing Same: An American Pilgrimage, is an episodic virtual reality experience on racial justice. This visceral magical realist adventure explores the critical role that U.S. history plays in forming a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the current social and cultural conditions that continue to shape the nation. Through magical realist elements of time travel, participants are invited to traverse the 400-year history of racial inequity in the U.S. while projecting forward to a joyful, Afrofuturist world of possibilities. A haunting story infused with magical realism and Afrofuturism, The Changing Same examines the uninterrupted cycle of the history of racial oppression, past and present.

Episode 1 premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, won Best Immersive Narrative at the Tribeca Film Festival (2021), and was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Interactive: Innovation. It is directed by Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster (RADA) with Yasmin Elayat, available on Oculus.

  • Titles include Co-Executive Producer, Key Collaborator

    Alexander produced and managed all volumetric and virtual production from creating workflows to onset direction. Designed scene layouts, storyboarding, and staging for all characters and scenes. He managed and contributed to production game engine development.

    Find full credits on the project website.

  • Sundance Film Festival (2021)

    Tribeca Film Festival (2021)

    Geneva International Film Festival (2021)

  • VR Scout — Feature

    Creators Project — Feature

    Fast Company — Feature

    Voices of VR Podcast — Feature

    Forbes — Feature

    PC Mag Interview — Feature

    Hollywood Reporter — Feature

    The Art Newspaper

    MTV — Festival Diary

    Daily Herald — Feature

    The Verge — Review

    Beautiful Now

    Forbes — Best of Sundance

    Find Press Kit here.

  • Best Immersive Narrative | Tribeca Film Festival (2021)

    Emmy Nomination (2022)

    Breakthroughs in Storytelling | Digital Dozen​ (2022)