OREANDA-NEWS UCLA professor Gina Kim’s 12-minute film “Bloodless” was named winner in the Best VR Story category at the 74th Venice International Film Festival.

The film, which was written and directed by Kim, who is a professor of film, television and digital media, traces the last living moments of a real-life sex worker who was brutally murdered by a U.S. soldier at the Dongducheond camp town in South Korea in 1992. Portraying the last hours of her life in the camp town, “Bloodless” transposes a historical and political issue into a personal and concrete experience. The film was shot on location where the crime took place, bringing to light ongoing experiences at the 96 camp towns near or around the U.S. military bases.

The Venice Film Festival judges praised “Bloodless” for using virtual reality toward the goal of social justice. As reported by the Korea Herald, head judge John Landis described Kim’s film as a “masterpiece that allows the viewer to feel social issues on the realm of senses and has broadened the horizon of VR films.”