VR animated film MAYA: The Birth of a Superhero has already garnered praise for digital artist and filmmaker Poulomi Basu, with a nomination at Festival de Cannes Compétition Immersive 2024 as well as earning a Winner Special Jury Mention Prize 2023 Tribeca Festival. Released for the best VR headsets, MAYA: The Birth of a Superhero is boundary-pushing art as much as it is a ‘game’.
VR can affect change
Poulomi’s work has mostly been based around photography, and she has particularly focused on the marginalisation of women, motivated by her own family’s experiences. “My mother and my grandmother were both child brides, and my mother then became a child mother, and then they both became young widows, so they lived a life of restrictions,” she says.
Her 2013 photographic collection Blood Speaks: A Ritual of Exile documented the Nepalese practice of Chhaupadi, in which women who are menstruating or bleeding after childbirth are considered ‘impure’ and exiled to makeshift huts. “Then I made 360-degree VR documentary films which were about being in that spatial confinement with the women,” recalls Poulomi.
A new law issuing fines or jail terms for people forcing women into menstrual confinement was passed in Nepal in 2017. “But I just kind of realised that even though laws change and things change. people’s hearts and minds don’t easily change,” Poulomi says. “And I realised, after living in the UK for so many years, that this element of taboo and shame [around periods] is so big: it just manifests in different societies in different ways.”
MAYA: The Birth of a Superhero
This led her to create the interactive VR experience MAYA: The Birth of a Superhero. “MAYA is about a South Asian girl growing up in Tower Hamlets, and how her life changes with her first period,” she says. “It’s about the sexual awakening and navigating this world of intergenerational trauma and period violence.” After overcoming her shame and fear, Maya unlocks her true superpowers.
BAFTA Breakthrough
Poulomi says that being chosen as a BAFTA Breakthrough is a significant moment in her career. “It’s hard to quantify what these things mean, because sometimes they’re so big that it just feels surreal and unreal, right? Growing up with my background and everything, I’ve had so little of being important and powerful… It feels absurdist and surreal in some ways, but also, at the same time, it makes me feel great that I belong, and I have been welcomed, and I’ve been chosen because I deserve it.”
After feeling like an outsider for much of her life, Poulomi hopes that being chosen as a BAFTA Breakthrough will open up previously unattainable spaces, allowing her to meet producers and directors, as well as gaining valuable mentoring.
Conclusion
Poulomi’s work is a testament to the power of VR in telling stories that need to be told. Her experiences as a woman of colour have shaped her perspective and inspired her to create art that challenges societal norms. As she continues to push boundaries in the world of VR, it will be exciting to see what the future holds for her.
FAQs
Q: What inspired Poulomi to create MAYA: The Birth of a Superhero?
A: Poulomi was inspired by her own experiences as a woman of colour and her desire to challenge societal norms around menstruation and period shame.
Q: What does being chosen as a BAFTA Breakthrough mean to Poulomi?
A: Being chosen as a BAFTA Breakthrough is a significant moment in Poulomi’s career, as it opens up new opportunities for her to meet producers and directors, and gain valuable mentoring.
Q: What does Poulomi hope to achieve with her work?
A: Poulomi hopes to use her work to challenge societal norms and create a more inclusive and accepting world for women and people of colour.
