VR Project Makes You Watch As A Man Is Beaten To Death

Based on actual footage recorded on mobile phones, Use of Force drops you into a crowd witnessing the last moments of Mexican migrant Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, who in 2010 was tasered and beaten to death by US border patrol agents.

You can’t intervene, you can’t influence events, you’re just sent into virtual reality to watch a re-enactment of the man’s death. LikeNo Russian, kind of (provided you played the level as a “bystander”), only without the cynicism.

It’s the work of Nonny de la Peña, a journalist, and the point isn’t to interact, it’s to experience something like this, something you’d normally only see on TV or in a newspaper, first-hand.

This immersive documentary plans to highlight and create awareness of the dehumanization of migrants on our borders using a revolutionary immersive nonfiction story that employs gaming and virtual reality technologies to tell the narrative. By putting the audience on scene at the harrowing night of Hernandez Rojas death, Use of Force Protocol will provide a deeper understanding of what’s happening on our borders.

You can see a video of Use of Force in action, taken by Motherboard’s Christopher Malmo, below.

Virtual Reality Turns a Horrific Taser Death Into Immersive Journalism [Motherboard]