Fillos do vento: A rapa's director on the future of cinema: "It has to evolve because the audience is not getting engaged as it used to"

It's no secret that cinema and movies are in a turbulent place. Ever since the pandemic, box office figures have been a shadow of what they were, in part down to new viewing tendencies from the public, like the rise and boom of streaming services and also the reduced time between theatrical runs and on-demand options too. It's clear that cinema needs to adapt to suit a different kind of audience, and perhaps one such method is to embrace immersive entertainment.

This is precisely what filmmaker Brais Revalderia has explored for his documentary film Fillos do vento: A rapa. This flick chronicles the Spanish tradition in the Galicia region, where villagers and wild horses collide in a feat of strength and memory. To explore and document this amazing ritual, Revalderia has used an array of new filming techniques and technology to capture the moment like never before, offering 270-degree projection mapping, 8K visuals, ambisonic sound, interactive storytelling, and all of this to deliver a true multisensory experience.

Talking about Fillos do vento: A rapa, we spoke with Revalderia at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, where we talked with the filmmaker about how immersive entertainment could be the future of film and how it's necessary for cinemas to evolve.

"I think it's very necessary," began Revalderia. "At the end, traditional cinema is great. We have all this story about fantastic movies, but I think it has to evolve in a way because the audience is not getting engaged as it used to in the past. The movie theaters are not doing as good as they used to do a few years ago.

"So I think it has to evolve, and we have to find other ways to communicate. And this is, for example, a hybrid between a documentary and an immersive experience at the end that we're trying to find another way to tell the story. I think it's great that the festivals are doing this, making these steps towards that and finding new ways of expression because we don't know what's coming in a few years, right? Somebody might find the right way to actually connect with people, and then we'll probably all try to follow that."

You can catch the full interview with Revalderia below, where we also speak about future virtual reality ideas and how Fillos do vento: A rapa is a modern example of Don Quixote.