Organization: Luc Bernard

For decades, video games have provided players an escape from the challenges and tragedies of the real world.  Whether we're searching for a reprieve from everyday stressors or a way to live out unattainable fantasy goals, games have filled that need. In recent years, we've seen an increase in gaming experiences that aim less to strictly entertain and more to inform, educate, and empathize: titles like Actual Sunlight and That Dragon, Cancer offer interactive opportunities to explore the personal, emotional topics of depression and illness, respectively.  Papo & Yo confronts the demons of alcoholism.  And soon, Imagination Is The Only Escape will provide a new way for modern players to remember the Holocaust: through the eyes of a child."Creator and director of Imagination Is The Only Escape, Luc Bernard, aims to craft an authentic and haunting portrayal of France's Nazi occupation in 1942.  The story will follow a young Jewish boy named Samuel and begin just before the Nazi invasion; his life is normal at this time, filled with friends and schoolwork, the normal events of youth.  This soon changes, though, during the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup and mass arrest of Jews in Paris: Samuel's mother encourages him to flee the city and find sanctuary with a Catholic priest, but she is shot and killed during their escape.  In one instant, Samuel's life—and that of all Parisians—changes dramatically.