Director Roger Ross Williams On Emmy-Nominated VR Film ‘Traveling While Black’: “It’s A Big Moment” | Deadline

The medium of virtual reality has been marshaled to explore everything from nature to outer space, roller coaster thrills, the human body and fictional stories, but it’s never been put to use quite in the way of Traveling While Black.

The Emmy-nominated VR film directed by Oscar- and Emmy-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams immerses viewers in a fundamental aspect of the black experience in America: the peril of facing racially-motivated assault in public settings and the need for safe spaces free of that threat.

“It’s a big moment, almost a groundbreaking moment for virtual reality,” Williams tells Deadline. “You don’t think about VR as a tool of social justice…I think very few [of] these sort of social justice pieces are made in VR.”