Hegedus_Sorellas_Story_still.jpg (248.89 kB)
Sorella's Story
The film brings to life a smuggled atrocity photograph from 1941 and places it into 360 immersive space. The photograph depicts the humiliation and murder of close to 4000 women and children on a Latvian beach allowing the viewer to accompany some of the women and an 10-year-old girl, Sorella, as they embark on their last journey so that we would never forget.
- Selected for World Premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival
- Reviewed by FilmInk
- Featured in the Brisbane International Film Festival 26 Oct - 5 Nov 2023
Watch the trailer on Vimeo
Funding
Griffith University (Grant title: Future Projections - Developing media architecture frameworks for new artistic outputs; combining technological innovations, placemaking and new collaborative creative projects) Griffith University (Grant title: Portable modular LED panels for use in virtual production)
History
ERA Category
- Recorded/Rendered Creative Work - Film/Video
Funding type
- Public funds
Eligible major research output?
- Yes
Research Statement
Background Sorella’s Story - a 15-minute drama - brings to life an atrocity photograph from 1941. It was placed into 360 immersive space after consideration of how Holocaust representation could be innovated for screen to create impact on audiences. The photograph depicts the murder of 3640 Latvian Jewish women and children by Nazi troops and collaborators. This immersive film gets viewers to accompany some of the women and a 10-year-old girl, Sorella, as they embark on their last journey so they would never forget. Sorella’s Story follows Holocaust testimony in screen culture, such as Resnais’ Night and Fog (1956), Lanzmann's Shoah (1985) and Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993) (that physicalized the Holocaust through dramatisation). Filmmaker Laszlo Nemes’ acclaimed The Son Of Saul (2015), fictionalised history depicting horrors of the Nazi gas chambers. Further new technology like Virtual Reality has also been employed in recent times to remind people about the Holocaust. Gabo Arora’s and Ari Palitz’ The Last Goodbye (2017) is a VR project where Pinchas Gutter, a survivor tells his story in the confines of Auschwitz. Contribution Using innovative technology while fictionalising this historical event, offers a distinct way of representing the Holocaust. Unlike previous films about the Holocaust, Sorella’s Story challenges audiences as they immerse in the story when viewing the film via a set of goggles. The viewer is given choices of where and when to look as events unfold. They are not confined to conventional rules of watching a film on screen. Viewers are technologically and emotionally challenged to retain memory of the Holocaust. Innovation is evident in the film by the unique use of sound design, and the way visual effects are employed to fill in the 360-space separating each scene and adding to the tense atmosphere that serves to represent the Holocaust. Significance This immersive short film premiered at the International Venice Film Festival. The film was screened at the Adelaide Film Festival, VR Fest De Barcelona, Ji.Hlava Film Festival, DocEdge and the Brisbane International Film Festival. In collaboration with the Melbourne Jewish Museum, the project received funding for an Australian national screening tour of museums and schools. Sorella’s Story is part of a package that will be showcased in the Queensland Holocaust Museum. The filmmakers have been invited to present the film at the Australian Teachers of Media conference.Publisher
Screen Queensland/Queensland Government/Griffith University/Gandel Foundation/ Screen AustraliaPlace of publication
Venice, ItalyPublisher URL
Confidential / Culturally sensitive
- No
Copyright notes
© 2022, the author/s hold copyright in this workLanguage
Latvian/EnglishMedium
Audiovisual materialDuration of performance
15 minutesPerformance size
- Group
Authors of work performed
Peter HegedusWas the work disseminated?
- Yes
Form of dissemination
- Published
Scope of dissemination
- International
Did the work go on tour?
- No