Safe & Sound: Crow (360° VR Film Screening & Discussion).

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In association with Ulster University, The Black Box Presents Safe & Sound: Crow (Film Screening)

Please join us 7pm-9pm, Wednesday 11th March 2026, in the Black Box, Belfast to engage with ‘Crow’ a short, horror-style, 360° film that depicts a female student walking home through the city at night and the sexual harassment she experiences along the way. The event will include a 2D-screening of the film as well as the opportunity to experience it using VR headsets. It will also be an opportunity for attendees to consider how the film might be used as a tool to address on-street sexual harassment.  Please note that the content and themes discussed during this event may be upsetting or triggering, so individuals should only attend if they are comfortable doing so. As the film features instances of full-frontal nudity, this screening is limited to individuals who are at least 18 years of age. Due the sensitive nature of the film and to protect our actors and audience, no photography or filming is permitted during the screening.

In 2021 End Violence Against Women (EVAW) confirmed that ‘one in two women felt unsafe walking alone after dark in a quiet street near their home, compared to one in seven men. One in two women felt unsafe walking alone after dark in a busy public place, compared to one in five men. Four out of five women felt unsafe walking alone after dark in a park or other open space, compared to two out of five men. Two out of three women aged 16 to 34 years experienced one form of harassment in the previous 12 months; with 44% of women aged 16 to 34 years having experienced catcalls, whistles, unwanted sexual comments or jokes, and 29% having felt like they were being followed’.  EVAW (2021) state that this ‘data confirms what women’s organisations have long known and sounded the alarm about: that being followed, harassed and assaulted are almost universally shared experiences of being a woman and girl, and that the threat of men’s violence leads to additional “safety work” and a restricted sense of freedom’.

Given the prevalence of this serious social issue, Crow employs immersive 360° filmmaking technology, coined as ‘the ultimate empathy machine’ (Milk, 2015), to place the audience inside in the experience of a female student as she walks through the city at night. Filmed entirely from her perspective, the 360° camera doubles as a ‘prop’ within the film by suggesting it is the protagonist’s mobile phone that she uses as a tool to record, and to intervene, in what she sees and experiences. The film features real-world examples of sexual harassment: being encroached upon by an unknown male; being flashed; witnessing an inebriated young woman being ‘helped’ by two males; being jeered at and cat-called. Alongside these hyper-realist elements, the film combines elements of the fantastical in its denouement, where it is suggested that the protagonist transforms into a crow to protect herself from a home intruder.

THIS EVENT IS STRICTLY OVER 18’s

This Film Screening has been proudly supported by Belfast City Council as part of the Ending Violence against Women & Girls Fund