The VR experience, from BBC Stories, allows participants to assume the roles of 20-year-old twins Anna and Lauren to discover how their lives are changed in an instant by a single, terrible event. A car accident leaves Anna with a brain injury which causes short term memory loss, affects her perceptions, and changes her personality.
Headway has supported Anna in her ongoing recovery and provided the BBC team a wider context on the unique nature of brain injury, as well on how it effects not just the survivor but also their wider relationships. Anna has shared her story for our brain injury and me website section.
The VR experience is told in the twins’ own words, based on months of interviews by BBC News reporter Camila Ruz. It explores how VR can be used to tell a compelling and authentic piece of journalism from two unique perspectives.
Two participants can go through Is Anna OK? together, experiencing different perspectives of this powerful story at the same time, with one seeing events through Anna’s eyes, and the other through Lauren’s.
Is Anna OK? has been featured at film and technology festivals across the country, including Edinburgh TV Festival, Sheffield Documentary Festival, and the 2018 Raindance Film Festival, where it was shortlisted for two awards.
Anna and Lauren’s story has been brought to life by BBC Stories in collaboration with the teams at BBC Studios Digital and Aardman Animations, and published by BBC VR Hub.
- Read Is Anna OK? on BBC.co.uk
- If you have an Oculus VR headset, you can download Is Anna OK? from the Oculus Store
My story
"My story isn't over yet"
Best friends Anna Khan and her twin sister Lauren have been inseparable since birth. Whether it be giving each other advice or sharing a passion for music concerts, shopping and family time, the duo have been together every step of the way.
But when Anna aged 21, and from Sheffield, was hit by a car and sustained a traumatic brain injury in December 2015, the hidden long-term effects of a serious head injury put great strain on the sisters' friendship.
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