If you're like me, the causes you care about most are the ones you've experienced firsthand. 

Here's an example: Growing up in Buffalo, NY, a city with a surprisingly large refugee population, I had the chance to befriend people from places like Burundi and Myanmar. That inspired a lifelong admiration for those who risk everything to find a better life, and a firm belief that refugees everywhere deserve respect and support. 

I'll bet many of you have a similar story to tell about a cause you're passionate about.  

But what about the causes we can't experience directly?

Take poverty in a place like East Africa, for example. Most folks are at least generally aware of the hardships millions face in economically challenged countries like Kenya, but how many people outside East Africa will ever have the chance to go to Kenya and see that poverty up close?

That's where virtual reality comes in. 

You might have heard about how virtual reality (otherwise known as "VR") is poised to take the entertainment industry by storm. Thanks to a cutting-edge combo of programming and optics, users can now don space-age plastic goggles and immerse themselves in a range of VR experiences, from video games to short films to CNN presidential debates. 

The beauty and power of VR lies in its ability to put viewers smack dab in the middle of the action. Users can rotate themselves a full 360 degrees and take in the entire scene as though they were there in person. I've tried VR a couple times myself, and I can tell you that the effect is truly mind-bending. After a while, it really does feel like you're inside the world of the VR experience. 

Now imagine taking that immersive power and using it to help viewers experience a far-off issue in a whole new way. What could VR mean for the countless organizations trying to inspire support for important causes like, say, poverty in East Africa?  

Forward-thinkers in the nonprofit world are already starting to embrace VR, and a compelling new short film offers an early look at how organizations are using the technology for good. 

The Clinton Global Initiative recently joined forces with Matter Unlimited, a New York-based creative agency, and pioneering VR directors Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël to create "Inside Impact: East Africa," a virtual reality film highlighting the organization's work in East Africa. 

The 9-minute film takes viewers on a journey across East Africa, from a rural village in Tanzania to Kibera, a section of Nairobi, Kenya, that ranks among the world's largest slums. Our guide is none other than CGI founder and former US President Bill Clinton. 

I sat down with Rob Holzer, the founder and CEO of Matter, to find out more about the film, the VR storytelling process, and what's next for this groundbreaking medium. 

Press play below to watch a 360-degree, click-and-drag version of film, then scroll down to read the Q&A. (To get the full VR experience, you'll need a headset like this.)

(Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

Hans Glick: How did your company wind up partnering with the Clinton Global Initiative to make a VR film?

Rob Holzer: About a year and a half ago I got a demo of the [virtual reality] technology with Felix and Paul and Ari [Kuschnir, Executive Producer, m ss ng p eces]. The sensation and the experience blew me away, and I've been in digital for 20 years. At Matter, we work exclusively around social impact and shared value, and working with brands and nonprofits and corporations to amplify good. I really had an idea for what I wanted to use this technology for—to tell a story about what's going on in the world and what kind of real, on-the-ground work is happening out in the world.

We had worked with CGI a couple years ago helping them with digital strategy, so I had a relationship there already, and also was deeply immersed in CGI's work. It was my idea to say if we could just show people what it's like to see this work happening, then that would be a really amazing use of this technology. So we put together a treatment, an idea, and then the project, which is now called "Inside Impact," and went and brought it to CGI and got them excited about it, and eventually got in front of the president, who decided he wanted to do it.

"I really think it's a paradigm shift equal or greater

to a radio to TV moment"

HG: How's it been working with President Clinton? Judging from his opening remarks at the CGI annual meeting last month, he seems pretty excited about the project.

RH: Amazing. President Clinton is quite a unique person in the world, and it was an honor, really, to work with him and to travel to Africa and be a part of that experience. He's just one of those guys that brings it all home in a very succinct way and can be very inspirational a lot of times. So yeah, it was it was exciting and a real honor to work with him.

HG: This is the first in a series of VR films you're calling "Inside Impact." What's the overall goal of the series?

RH: We're going to be working with other organizations and telling stories of positive social change happening in the world in this virtual reality format. The goal is not to just have a film out in the world, but a film and then an activation around it. How can we really drive action and whatever that is that we want out of this? So not just to have a piece of content, but a piece of content that actually connects people to the issue in a way I've never really experienced before. And how do we get more people involved, whether that's volunteering, or whether it's donating, or whether it's just having some awareness and sharing information about that particular issue.

HG: Your company must really be sold on VR as a storytelling format. What does VR bring to the table that other formats can't?

RH: This is one of the hardest parts about virtual reality. You can't talk about it. The truth is, you have to experience it. I've now played our film for thousands of people over the past couple of weeks. We did it at CGI, I've been at other events, and people have been asking me to come and play it. Everyone has a different experience, and everyone has a different connection, but everyone feels something very different than filmmaking—you know, than watching a 2D screen.

"You really have to throw out a lot of what you know about filmmaking"

So it's tough to talk about VR, but I look at this as a massive paradigm shift. Being in digital for 20 years, I've seen gimics come and go, but I really think it's a paradigm shift equal or greater to a radio to TV moment. What will happen with this format? It's gonna go in a lot of different directions with a lot of different people. Our lane, and what we're focused on is live cinematic storytelling, and using the format to connect people much closer to their hearts on issues that are important to the world.

HG: You mentioned having played the film thousands of times. What have been some of the best reactions from first-time viewers?

RH: I have seen so many different reactions. People have been moved to tears. I actually had a journalist who does a lot of work in Africa ask me a number of questions for 10 minutes and then play the film. She came back and turned on a recorder like you did, got two questions in and just started crying. She just was so overwhelmed with the fact that this can connect so deeply to her own experiences, and she just was starting to feel the power of it, like what could this do, right? What could this do for storytelling?

Someone who had seen my film very high up in the corporate world brought over the secretary of Turkey. Very stern man in a big suit with his security and they all that sat down in the lobby to experience the film. 8 minutes later he got up and was really moved, and then made a comment that he wished the technology was available 10 years ago because his mother passed away 10 years ago, and if he had had the technology, he would have been able to film her and he could still be with her today.

I had the ability to play it for celebrities, heads of state, heads of nonprofits who've been doing this work, who've been saying "finally, we can really show people the experience of what it's like, our work." And lots of thank you's. It's been a really overwhelming thing for me emotionally to put out in the world. Probably the biggest and most emotional project I've put out.

"The interesting thing with VR is that you are the camera. That's what it is."

HG: VR filmmaking requires some pretty non-traditional methods and technology. How do the technical aspects of VR shape the stories you're able to tell?

RH: It's a whole new way of thinking about filmmaking. You really have to throw out a lot of what you know about filmmaking. I think that that's one of the things that some of the early filmmakers and some of the early films that I had seen before were missing. They were treating it as documentary filmmaking and doing things like moving the camera and doing faster cuts, and trying a lot of different cuts and angles. Which for me, when I experienced those films, were jarring—sometimes it gets people sick, even—because it's a totally different experience.

As we were going through the entire production, we were making decisions on what we wanted to capture but we were capturing it in a way that would give you this sense of calm and presence in the experience more than telling you the story. Because the interesting thing with VR is that you are the camera. That's what it is. People used to say, you know, "Give people a witnessing experience," or, "Don't tell people the story, allow them to experience the story," right? But this is actually doing that because the camera is you. So you have to think about it completely differently.

I think that as things advance and things move along, we'll learn more about what where we can push and where we can't. But I think that the way we capture those moments and why people are so connected emotionally to our piece is because we get into these places, first of all, that are so rarified in some ways—to be in an intimate scene in Karatu with President Clinton speaking to a Solar Sister. The fact that you can be in that space and experience it is really kind of a special feeling. Or being in a classroom with the kids in Nairobi, in Farasi Lane, just allowing you to be there more than us having to dictate the story with the camera angles or faster cuts.

"I want to able to put someone in that classroom and then have them meet that girl and have a conversation with her"

HG: Is there ever a concern that VR storytelling might stray into voyeurism? In other words, letting the viewer gawk at the poor without taking anything away from the experience?