WE CREATE IMMERSIVE STORIES THAT CHANGE THE WAY PEOPLE LOOK AT THE WORLD AROUND THEM.
The Power of Place
Walking Cinema is fascinated with how places hold stories. From the design of doorways to the steam tunnels under old buildings, we leverage guided exploration of places to reveal history, unique characters, and our shared experience.
Walking Cinema’s Approach
Walking Cinema has worked with cultural organizations and media outlets to produce a unique combination of site-based storytelling, augmented reality, and hand-on learning. We call these experiences “Walking Cinema.” Every day our experiences reach thousands of people around the world.
“EXPLORATION IS A LIBERAL ART, BECAUSE IT IS AN ART THAT LIBERATES, THAT FREES, THAT OPENS AWAY FROM NARROWNESS.”
― John R. Stilgoe,
professor at Harvard University
Migrant Footsteps
2023 Walking Cinema production telling unique migration stories in three different San Francisco neighborhoods. Features local musicians narrating stories with voice, poetry, and song. Free app download.California Migration Museum
San Francisco
The Fillmore Eclipse
An immersive theater extension of our walking tour series: Museum of Hidden City. This recreation of a 1950’s late-night jazz club tells the story of a crucial moment when San Francisco’s modern housing policy was being formed and a successful black business neighborhood was about to be erased. Opens in Spring, 2024. Currently seeking crew and underwriting.Z-Space, Success Centers, The Rainin Foundation
San Francisco
Free & Equal
A driveable audio/AR experience in which Darius Brown, a teenage expert genealogist, is trying to understand the experience of his third great grandfather in the Civil War. The surprising answer is revealed as you make your way through the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park.University of South Carolina, The National Park Service and The National Endowment for the Humanities.
Beaufort, SC
WE SPECIALIZE IN MEDIA THAT GETS AUDIENCES PHYSICALLY INVOLVED IN HISTORY, CURRENT ISSUES, AND CULTURE.
Walking Cinema creates audio experiences, podcasts, and journalism with an experimental edge. We work with cutting edge narrative approaches and new media such as GPS, augmented reality, smart speakers, and photogrammetry to make stories that feel both personal and innovative.
Augmented
Reality
GPS
Navigation
Audio
Tour
3D
Photogrammetry
Through contracts, grants, and creative collaborations, we work with a range of media outlets, cultural organizations, and schools to develop immersive media projects often focused on telling the story of a specific place.
Michael Epstein, founder
Michael started Walking Cinema based on an urge to create content for mobile devices that put audiences more in touch with the world around them. His vision was based on location-based audio and video “overlays” to the world around you (early augmented reality) that brought history and critical issues to life. This format is now called “Walking Cinema”. Michael is still involved with the writing, casting, audio production, and direction of our productions. He is most excited about the wide range of talent, voices, and geographies he’s been able to bring to Walking Cinema’s work.
La Doña, producer
La Doña is a crossover reggaeton/mariachi musician who was born and raised in San Francisco. She helped write and compose an original soundtrack for our “The Mission: Coffee Country” production. La Doña has been involved in the Mission as a performer, educator, and researcher of the neighborhood’s Latino Cultural district for years and brought a love of the place, its people, and a concern for its future to the production.
Samuel Getachew, writer
Samuel started learning how to write and perform spoken word poetry with Youth Speaks in Oakland. He has grown into the nationally-recognized poet and writer, becoming a finalist for the National Youth Poet Laureate and the youngest person to have an op-ed published in The New York Times. He was a co-writer, collaborator, and performer on “Before the Bulldozers,” pioneering ways to write with the landscape and bring a poetic voice to historic characters.
