W&L Presents Screening of Craig Quintero’s Expanded Reality Films The films will be screened Sept. 25-26 in the IQ Center, followed by an artist’s talk.

By Emily Innes Stanley
September 17, 2025

The expanded reality films of Craig Quintero will be screened at Washington and Lee University Sept. 25 – 26 in the IQ Center in the Science Addition. Expanded reality (XR) films refer to movies made with extended reality technologies — such as virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality — to create immersive cinematic experiences.

The screenings are open to W&L students and will take place every 10-15 minutes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sept. 25 and Sept. 26. Students can sign up for a time slot here, by visiting the IQ Center or emailing Nich Perez, the DeLaney Filmmaker-in-Residence with W&L’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Quintero will also deliver an artist’s talk at 5 p.m. on Sept. 26 in Stackhouse Theater in Elrod Commons to close the showcase. The talk is open to the public.

“We are honored to welcome filmmaker and visionary director Craig Quintero to W&L for the premiere of his groundbreaking expanded reality experiences,” Perez said. “He seamlessly blends cinematic precision with the emotional intensity of live theatre. In his expanded reality projects, viewers don’t simply watch; they inhabit the story. Every frame reflects his deep roots in stagecraft, drawing audiences into hauntingly intimate encounters that blur the boundaries between observer and participant.”

Quintero’s XR films include “All That Remains” (2022), “Over the Rainbow” (2023) and “A Simple Silence” (2024), known as the “Just For You” trilogy. These films, which will be screened at W&L, explore the possibilities that exist beyond everyday patterns and blur the lines between dream and reality. The immersive films possess an emotional depth and level of intimacy with the characters, creating a rare and powerful connection between the viewer and the subject.

“This is more than a screening,” Perez said. “It is an invitation into a fully immersive, emotionally resonant world that challenges how we see, feel and connect with narrative. His visit marks an exciting step forward in our students’ exploration of storytelling’s future.”

Quintero is the artistic director of the Riverbed Theatre Company in Taiwan and has written and directed more than 50 original image-based performances, including productions in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore, China, France, Germany and the United States. As a sculptor and installation artist, his work has been exhibited around the world. Quintero is also a professor of theatre, dance, and performance studies at Grinnell College.

Quintero’s films have been presented and received awards at numerous festivals, including South by Southwest, the Venice Film Festival, the Luxembourg Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. His latest project, “Blur,” premiered at the 2025 Taiwan International Festival of the Arts and is currently on the festival circuit. Quintero was selected by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2023 and is a former Fulbright senior scholar and Mellon Foundation Humanities Unbounded Fellow.

The screening is funded by the Glasgow Endowment and sponsored by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Film Studies, the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Department of Art and Art History.