Liberty City VR
Liberty City VR is the first of its kind immersive media experience that brings the past of Miami’s legendary neighborhood to life.
Propelled by authentic voices and visuals, viewers experience historic Liberty Cityfrom its beginning in the 1940s to its heyday during the 1960s when the area was a hot spot for the most celebrated African-American public figures in the country until the dramatic events of the 1980s.
“Donec id justo non metus auctor commodo ut quis enim. Mauris fringilla dolor vel condimentum imperdiet.”
“All the big stars came here after they performed on Miami Beach.”
Despite its eclectic mix of cultures, Miami is one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. Over the course of three years we will follow three female protagonists who are trying to save one of Miami’s last African American communities, historic ‘Liberty Square,’ best known as the setting for the Oscar winning film Moonlight. By challenging the city’s plan to wipe out the oldest public housing projects in the US, the Liberty Square residents find themselves fighting to defend their small close knit community on many fronts. Miami’s growing and influential Cuban communities encroaching upon Liberty Square’s boundaries, Climate Gentrification threaten to push Liberty Square inhabitants out of Miami’s highest land away from eroding shorelines and the rapid globalization of Miami as an international city undermines the cultural impact of a once thriving African American cultural and social enclave. Razing Liberty Square follows the families who are struggling against cultural erasure by reclaiming their place in Miami’s past, present and future.
“We wanted to be bigger than Motown! We had a Gumbo of church and street life, marching bands, and Caribbean music.”
MISSION and URGENCY
We want to tell the story of this neighborhood that four generations of African-Americans have called their home. Today a major transformation is happening, bringing with it gentrification and the danger of cultural erasure. We want users to have an opportunity to explore the role Liberty City has in encapsulating the substantial black history of Miami and its importance for the entire United States. Understanding the past informs and inspires the future!
Team
Katja Esson [Director / Producer]
is an Academy Award-nominated, Emmy award winning filmmaker based in Miami, known for her character-driven documentaries tackling race, class and gender. She received the Simons Public Humanities Fellowship at Kansas University and her films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art, American Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation.
Ronald Baez [Creative producer]
is a Caribbean-American screenwriter, director, and award-winning immersive media artist from Miami, FL. Baez was awarded the Fledgling Fund's Rapid Deployment Grant in 2018 for his doc series about global warming and sea level rise in Miami, King Tide Hew also received the NAB Futures Innovator's Award in 2019 for his ongoing immersive reality projects produced in collaboration with the University of Florida's MET Lab.
Kiira Benzing [Creative producer]
is a director crossing the mediums of theater, hybrid cinema and virtual reality. “Cardboard City” her first venture in Virtual Reality won the Samsung Gear Indie Milk VR contest (2016). Following this VR film her interactive installation for “Cardboard City” combining VR and AR premiered at the 54th annual New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center. Kiira’s most recent project, Runnin’, is an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival 2019.
Ann Bennett [Producer]
is an Emmy nominated documentary filmmaker and multimedia producer. She produced the NAACP Image Award-winning PBS feature documentary, Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, as well as the multi-platform community engagement initiative, Digital Diaspora Family Reunion (DDFR). Bennett is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Harvard College.
RASHAUD MICHEL [Co-writer]
Is the Miami-born, Liberty City-based Co-Founder of the Blck Family, a Miami based creative collective responsible for the installation of mobile performance art shows centered around culinary, visual, performing and social arts. He also works as a freelance filmmaker/experimental video artist and photographer for companies in the U.S. and Latin America.
Hector David Rosales [Cinematographer / Associate Producer]
is a Cuban cinematographer based in Miami. His work has been showcased at the Sundance Lab Miami, Clermont Ferrand, Vancouver Film Festival, Havana Film Festival. He recently photographed the award-winning narrative short Me 3.769 which premiere at the Miami Film Festival and airs on HBO in 2019. Currently he is filming the feature documentary Razing Liberty Square with director Katja Esson.
