Engaging Youth in History Through Immersive Storytelling: A Case Study of the 'Once Upon a Time in Palestine' XR Documentary

This paper explores the Once Upon a Time in Palestine XR Documentary as a case study to investigate the potential of virtual and augmented reality technologies in reshaping historical narratives through immersive stories that engage youth with history. The documentary recounts the oral history of pre-1948 Palestine by providing an interactive virtual experience presented on a virtual reality (VR) headset and augmented reality (AR) app. Developed on the Unity3D Gaming Engine, the project employs cutting-edge AI technologies to transform archival photographs into a three-dimensional environment. The storytellers are seamlessly integrated into the XR documentary as 3D volumetric videos to deliver mini-scripted reenactments of oral accounts that were collected from interviews with Palestinian elders. The paper examines various facets of the production process and its outcome while exploring the implications for youth engagement in both the creation process and interaction with the finished project. At the core of this process lies an endeavor to present content with minimal technological mediation that fosters a sense of plausibility through the creation of ‘presence’ for the audience. The case study presents observations and articulates the process undertaken to produce the documentary, which underscores the significance of employing virtual and augmented reality in historical documentaries. Furthermore, it assesses how an interdisciplinary multimodal pedagogical design can facilitate collaborative and interactive projects for undergraduate students, especially when the creators and consumers of the content are the target audience.