Sam Wolson

We won a Peabody Award. So proud and deeply honoured to be part of Cleared by Fire ,a project that carries weight, memory, and meaning. Grateful to have worked alongside the extraordinary team at @newyorkermag , and to everyone who poured their talent, care, and truth into this story. This one really matters. We are Peabody Awards winner!! For 86 years, @peabodyawards has celebrated #StoriesThatMatter that reflect the world around us. We are honored to be recognized amongst this tremendous class of storytelling excellence! Thank you so much and congratulations to @mrwolson @david.kofahl @aviva.tny @iguessnick @jon_bernson @sonnyc56 @timklimowicz @maxxcreatives #PeabodyWinner #PeabodyAwards #StoriesThatMatter #Peabody86

On November 19, 2005, a group of U.S. Marines killed twenty-four civilians in Haditha, Iraq. The incident led to one of the most high-profile war-crimes prosecutions in American history. But no one was ever held accountable for the killings. For the past year we have been working with the @inthedarktny on an interactive documentary that takes you through the events of November 19, 2005 through the perspectives, statements and words of the people who were there. At each location, we recreated these sites and change the visuals to the perspective of the person who is telling us what happened. The project uses illustration, realtime 3D graphics, spacial audio and draws from thousands of newly acquired documents and photos to tell the story. Best viewed on a computer, with headphones but a phone will work as. Link in bio! Thanks to everyone who worked on the project - my co-director @david.kofahl everyone at @inthedarktny (Madeleine Baran, Samara Freemark, Parker Yesko, Rehman Tungekar, Natalie Jablonski, Catherine Winter Artist @emilianoponzi , Story Editor and Producer Julia Rothchild Art Director and Designer @iguessnick , Supervising Design Director @aviva.tny , Sound Designer & Composer @jon_bernson , Executive Producers @invisibleframes , Michael Luo, David Remnick Developers @nowheremetavrse Sonny Cirasuolo, Tim Klimowicz @pulitzercenter @newyorkermag and so many more!

My new film Reeducated is now available on The New Yorker’s website, Youtube and on Oculus TV. The film takes viewers inside one of Xinjiang’s “reeducation” camps, guided by the recollections of three men who were imprisoned together at the same facility. Using over a dozen hours of first hand testimony, brush and ink animation and ambisonic sound, the VR film reconstructs the experience of detention and political reeducation. As many as a million people were held in a vast network of “reeducation centers.” It is likely the largest mass-internment drive of ethnic and religious minorities since the Second World War. Huge thanks to the entire team, @newyorkermag in addition to the @pulitzercenter , @eyebeamnyc @online_news and to the @sxsw jury for the award!

Excited to share a new visual feature for @newyorkermag I’ve been working on over the past several months. Tina and her teen, J.J., who is trans, have lived in Maine for nine years. After President Trump’s executive order restricting access to gender-affirming care for minors, they made the difficult decision to leave the U.S. This project combines reporting and animation from @lillicarre with a cutting-edge 3D technique called Gaussian Splats. The result is a blended form of storytelling that aims to let readers not only see their world, but also feel what it means to leave it. Thanks to @iguessnick @aviva.tny and @timklimowicz for making it happen! Check it out on The New Yorkers website!

Here is a series of portraits taken for my new project with @newyorkermag (see previous post) of a selection of former detainees and victims from Xinjiang, China. In order of appearance: Orynbek Koksebek Koksebek, a herder and farmer, has been hospitalized in Kazakhstan twice for ongoing physical and mental-health problems. He believes that his imprisonment left him unable to have children. Tursunay Ziyawudun Ziyawudun, the Uighur nurse who spent ten months in a camp, fled Xinjiang for Kazakhstan in 2019. She is now living in the United States. Erbaqyt Otarbai Otarbai spent more than eighteen months in camps, where he endured solitary confinement, forced labor, and torture. In early 2020, Otarbai and his wife divorced, and since then he has been looking for work. Nurlan Kokteubai Kokteubai is a retired teacher, and lives in a small village in southeastern Kazakhstan, where he and his wife Aynur are raising their youngest son. Sholpan Amirken Amirken moved to Kazakhstan in 2018. She lost touch with her relatives in China and has had no news of her brother-in-law, Nurlan Pioner, who is believed to be in prison somewhere in the Altai region of Xinjiang. Amanzhan Seituly Seituly, an importer, lost several of his clients in China as a result of his detention. He now lives in Almaty with his wife and four children.

Debuting today on @newyorkermag website is “Inside Xinjiang’s Prison State,” part 1 of our immersive interactive feature. We have been working on this collaboration with The New Yorker for over the past 18 months. @benmauk @matty_huynh and I traveled to Kazakhstan in early 2019 just before the pandemic restricted travel to speak to over a dozen former detainees and victims. Moving between "reeducation camps", and the surveillance state rolled out across Xinjiang the project explores the scope of China's campaign of persecution against ethnic and religious minorities. It is likely the largest mass internment of ethnic and religious minorities since the Second World War. The project uses hand-drawn pen-and-brush illustrations by @matty_huynh which were brought to life by our amazing post production team lead by @nixthenix and @dirtempirenyc and the fantastic staff at The New Yorker including @invisibleframes @sginnyc @soojeong1 @david.kofahl Part 2 of the project will premiere at @sxsw as a 3D 360 VR film in mid March. More on that soon!

Excited to announce that “Reeducated”, our new VR film made in partnership with @newyorkermag will premiere @sxsw this year! "Reeducated" uses watercolor cel animation to take viewers inside a “reeducation" camp in Xinjiang, China, guided by the recollections of three men who were caught in what is likely the largest mass-internment drive of ethnic and religious minorities since the Second World War. @benmauk @dirtempirenyc @matty_huynh @jon_bernson

Excited to announce that After The Fallout, the VR documentary I co-directed with @dominicnahr , will premiere in the VR cinema @sundanceorg in 2020. After The Fallout looks at the aftermath of the 2011 Daiichi nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. I have been working on this project on and off since 2017 and can't wait to share it. (Poster by @maxxcreatives 📸 by @dominicnahr )

New VR film with @nytimes , @aj_plus and @emblematicgroup check it out on NYT VR today!

The future of virtual reality