Sundance 2021: New Frontier Highlights

From home, you can now participate in the film festival's cutting-edge virtual vertical

Since its debut in 2006, the Sundance Film Festival‘s New Frontier program has premiered and presented immersive, experiential works that challenge the way we think about cinematic storytelling, art and technology. Physical hubs in Park City, Utah allowed festival goers the opportunity to put on a headset (and once a snorkel) and slip into other worlds, powered by virtual or augmented reality. This year, film fans …

Premiere: “Ghost Noise” by BOYO

Director Corey Watson animates the LA-based recording artist's melodic, melancholic track

From LA-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist BOYO (aka Robert Tilden) comes “Ghost Noise,” a melodic indie-pop release with a macabre undercurrent. On the track, Tilden’s friendly soundscape grows anxious as their lyrics shift from a tale of fantastical illusion to domestic nightmare. Corey Watson directed and animated the accompanying music video, which pays homage to the artistry of Japanese anime. Watson’s visual work heightens the emotional expanse …

Researching The Theory That Money Can’t Buy Happiness

Whether or not money buys happiness remains a collective fixation—and many scholars endeavor to answer the question through countless studies. In a much-cited paper published in 2010, psychologist Daniel Kahneman and economist Angus Deaton determined that an individual’s life satisfaction improved as their income increased, but emotional wellbeing plateaued once a household achieved an income of $75,000 (equal to about $90,000 now). Around the same …