Unframed Collection is a partner of Numix Lab, a touring event in Europe that each year takes professionals and experts in immersive creation to meet the cultural centres of the host countries. In 2024, Germany welcomed 250 people, with an intense week of exchanges and discoveries between Munich, Leipzig and Berlin! To mark the occasion, we met with Dominic Desjardins, director, producer and co-founder with Rayne Zukerman of Quebec production company Zazie Films.
Zazie Films: Producers of Immersive Content
Dominic Desjardins – My partner, who is also a producer, and I founded Zazie Films. We create linear works—films, television, documentaries—as well as interactive and immersive experiences. We are currently completing a virtual reality project, and the next one will be in mixed reality. We operate on multiple projects through two entities: one dedicated to special effects, which significantly advances research and development (bringing us many new ideas), and the other focused on production.
D.D. – We are currently working on a project called the Dollhouse, a co-production between Canada and Luxembourg with Wild Fang Films and ZEILT Productions handling animation. It’s an immersive fiction based on real events, incorporating documentary elements from our research on the conditions of domestic workers.
D.D. – This project explores the lives of domestic workers, their relationships with the families they serve, and the abuses frequently associated with these roles worldwide. These are fragile situations that we wanted to highlight. Extensive research was conducted by my co-writer and director, Charlotte Bruneau, who is from Luxembourg and works for Reuters.
D.D. – Based on these findings, the Dollhouse is told through the eyes of the family’s child. She relives everyday situations using a paper dollhouse, allowing her to better understand the realities she was exposed to. This is a project with real impact, designed to raise awareness of these issues.
Producing Impactful Projects
D.D. – I initially worked in the documentary department of the NFB (National Film Board of Canada) when virtual reality made its comeback. I was leading the Canadian Francophonie Studio, and we were able to use these new tools to tell our stories. The potential of VR was immediately clear. It offered the possibility of stepping into someone else’s shoes—an empathy tool. For me, that has always been the ultimate goal when working with immersive media. How do we bring the audience closer to the subject? How can we develop new forms of sensitivity using these emerging technologies?
D.D. – My background in documentary filmmaking helps me approach immersive projects as a way to create this new form of empathy—to capture something that doesn’t exist in other media, the ability to shed light on the human experience when the subject is meaningful.
D.D. – The same applies to immersive fiction. How can we help audiences broaden their perspective on the world, creating an emotional impact? XR projects must be rooted in reality to truly engage the audience—so that they leave the experience feeling like they have stepped outside their comfort zone, prompting reflection on what they have just seen.
Attending Numix Lab 2024
D.D. – Numix Lab is, first and foremost, an incredible opportunity to meet people from around the world who share our profession. Whether they are distributors or cultural venues interested in the same tools we use, this event is a key gathering in the digital industry, allowing us to connect with new people each year.
D.D. – Since it is organized around different locations, we travel and open ourselves to what is being created worldwide—in this case, in Germany. We realize that we share common goals, yet we also discover entirely new approaches that inspire and motivate us to imagine collaborations and co-productions. Perhaps new projects will emerge from this. We are all moving in the same direction.
