The online documentary ‘Out my window’ goes against all rules of traditional film. The script is subordinate and innovative use of social media and 360 - degree films deliver an entirely new concept. Documentary filmmaker Katerina Cizek is now an Emmy award nominee, thanks to her ‘interactive documentary’.

‘Out My Window’ is a documentary about people who live in apartment buildings. Life in flats around the world can be discovered in the film. However, the subject-matter of the film is not that special, what is more interesting is the form in which the project is cast.

The film will not be shown in cinemas, all the footage is available on a website. The movie is partly filmed as 360 degrees picture. The project is also fully interactive, meaning that the viewer is not passively consuming, but actively influencing the course of the storyline. With clicks, the viewer wanders through digital homes of 13 families or individuals through videos, photos and text fragments. You choose your own order of viewing and browse your way through fragments of the life of an Indian family in Bangalore via the religious views of a musician in Amsterdam to a socialist public housing project in Havana, Cuba.

‘Previously, a documentary was mainly exploring the ideas and questions of journalists. That is changing. The fimmaker will no longer present conclusions to his audience. For example, there are no voice-over narratives in my film. I do not tell my story as a linear tale, but I let the viewer fill in the gaps. Interesting ideas [are born] when the audinece and the filmmaker come together, in this case on themes as urbanization, housing immigrants in a big city and the preservation culture.’ Cizek explains.

‘Out My Window' is another strong example of how new media can change the film world, after the YouTube film 'Life in a Day’ in which several filmmakers showed what happened on a certain date. Cizek selected global citizens through Facebook and Skype, and let the interviewees largely determine what was being filmed. ’That interaction is an important part of the process. They know what it's like to live in that flat, I'm just curious.’

‘Out My Window’ is an online documentary made for the National Film Board of Canada, the film is nominated for an International Digital Emmy Award in the category of non-fiction. The film is available here.

Reference: Dagblad De Pers, Feb. 28, 2011 – page 23 (Dutch)