<i>Sorella’s Story</i> : Holocaust awareness among generations, through technology and empathy

In 2022, Sorella’s Story was launched at the Venice International Film Festival using 360 immersive technologies with the intention to enable empathic responses from viewers as they witnessed the story of a group of Latvian women and a 10-year-old child, Sorella, in their last moments before being killed by Nazi troops and their Latvian collaborators during World War II. This article presents findings of an empathy survey that was completed by viewers of the film at the Venice International Film Festival, the Brisbane International Film Festival and during orientation week at Australia’s largest film schools: the Griffith Film School. The survey was administered to determine whether using 360 immersive storytelling for a film about the Holocaust triggered empathic responses, and if there were different empathic responses in viewers of different ages. Findings indicate that all age groups responded empathically to the experience confirming 360 immersive technologies’ empathy eliciting capacities. Older people scored significantly higher than younger people on empathic responses, indicating the need for more research on generational differences.