Submarine Channel

“What do you do on nights you can’t sleep? What techniques help you get to sleep? Describe the room you are in…”

These are just a few of the probing questions the first phase of The National Film Board of Canada´s (NFB) A Journal of Insomnia project tries to get insomniacs to answer. In this interview shot during IDFA DocLab back in November, we go behind-the-scenes into the storytelling approach with three of the makers of an interactive website and social experiment that doubles as a confessional. Not meant for sinners, but for those who can’t sleep.

“People are completely open and give us really in-depth access to their soul”.

The Journal of Insomnia aims to fulfill an insomniac’s need for expression, all while gathering user-generated content for the second part of the interactive project that will create a portrait of insomnia as a universal affliction. We were impressed at how insomniacs participated in the first phase of the project, staying immersed on the site for up to two hours, and thoroughly answering all the pre-selected questions by voice, by writing, or by drawing.

We can’t wait to see what the second phase brings…when the project is launched at the inaugural Storyscapes transmedia program at the Tribeca Film Festival next month!

A project by Bruno Choinière, Guillaume Braun, Philippe Lambert & Thibaut Duverneix

Read the extended interview and check out others in this series in our digital report – Perspectives on Interactive Documentary Storytelling.

 

CREDITS: Director: Katy Yudin, Camera: Pierre Rezus, Editor: Anneke de Lind van Wijngaarden, Sound: Pierre Rezus, A production by Submarine Channel Foundation 2012

Recorded at the IDFA DocLab Expanding Documentary exhibition at De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam