Look But With Love was Pakistan’s first virtual reality documentary series created by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and SOC Films in collaboration with WITHIN, the pioneering immersive media company founded by Chris Milk, and Here Be Dragons. Released globally on the WITHIN platform in 2017, the five-part series used 360-degree filmmaking to take audiences inside communities across Pakistan and introduce them to people changing the worlds around them.
Viewers travel from the deserts of Thar to Nowshera, Sindh, Lahore and Karachi standing alongside women training to fight terrorism, a musician preserving disappearing traditions, a dancer keeping an ancient art form alive, a doctor fighting to save children’s lives, and a campaign to bring clean water to remote communities.
For SOC Films, the technology was never the story. Working with Chris Milk’s team gave us an opportunity to experiment with a new visual language at a moment when immersive documentary was still being defined.
VR allowed us to collapse the distance between audience and subject. Instead of watching Pakistan through a frame, viewers could enter these environments, look around for themselves and experience people and places rarely encountered beyond conventional headlines.
The collaboration became an important step in SOC Films’ exploration of how technology can change our relationship with a story — an experimentation that continues across our immersive work today.
A Story of Women
Inside an all-women anti-terrorism unit in Nowshera, challenging expectations of women working on the front lines of national security.
A Story of Dance
Entering the world of classical dance and the artists keeping its traditions alive.
A Story of Water
Travelling into the Thar Desert with those working to bring clean water to remote communities.
A Story of Music
Journeying through Sindh with a musician preserving disappearing sounds and instruments.
A Story of a Doctor
Inside Karachi, where a doctor provides emergency care to some of the city’s most vulnerable children.
