In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats - New VR film experience takes people back to Coventry's Acid House and rave scene - The Coventry Observer

In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats - New VR film experience takes people back to Coventry's Acid House and rave scene

Coventry Editorial 27th Jan, 2022   0

TICKETS for a euphoric interactive Virtual Reality (VR) adventure transporting people back to the heart of the Acid House movement go on sale on Friday, January 28.

In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats is being directed by award-winning film-maker Darren Emerson and produced by East City Films and BPM XR Ltd.

A venue is still to be confirmed for the experience which will run from March 29 to May 1 and is supported by the BFI, awarding National Lottery funding, and Coventry City of Culture Trust.

Viewers will experience tracking down and arriving at an all-night illegal warehouse party at the height of the rave scene in Coventry in 1989.




The project will put audiences into the shoes of rave culture pioneers, exploring environments from poster-strewn bedrooms to pirate radio stations, and police headquarters to secret warehouses.

Picture by East City Films. s

The Midlands rave scene was one of the most important in a youth culture movement that shaped a generation. Thousands from all over the country would make the pilgrimage each week to Coventry and party in woodlands, fields and disused buildings.


In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats takes audiences on a multi-sensory joyride into the past, bringing to life the stories of the promoters, police officers, and rave-goers, whose rivalries and relationships drove a revolution in music and society.

Multi-sensory room-scale interactive VR will enable participants to feel the anticipation, trepidation, excitement, and euphoria that was Acid House.

Leading figures of the Midlands rave scene at the time, including Coventry’s legendary promoters Amnesia House, were involved in making the film.

Darren said he wanted to take audiences back to the thrill of one night in 1989 and use the immersive experience to re-examine what the moment meant through the intersection of storytelling and interaction.

“It is a familiar tale of the Acid House experience, understood and lived by many, which contains universal themes of community, politics, and class disruption.

“It also serves as a revisionist take on this familiar story, because it is set in Coventry, a city not readily celebrated within the books, documentaries, and legends of Acid House. But for those that knew the score, they knew Coventry had its part to play.

“This is my most ambitious and complex work to date, and it is a thrill to have been commissioned by Coventry City of Culture and supported by the BFI Film Fund.”

The East City Fims team worked with its long-term collaborators All Seeing Eye as it strove to push the concept of what a VR narrative could be within an immersive environment.

“Like the distant memories of Acid House itself, this experience will capture the feeling and energy of the setting, create new contextual narratives about the scene, and inform and delight in equal measure.”

Chenine Bhathena, Coventry City of Culture Trust creative director, said: “The epic rave scene that swept the country and shaped a generation had one of its epicentres in Coventry.

“We are so excited to be working with Darren, one of the UK’s leading VR filmmakers to recreate that hedonistic time and allow audiences to be fully immersed in the energy and euphoria of the time.”

Visit coventry2021.co.uk for more information and tickets.

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