“The Last Goodbye” Virtual Reality Testimony Premieres at Tribeca Film Festival

Press Coverage

"The Last Goodbye" is the VR Holocaust Memorial we need today (Engadget)

The Incredible, Urgent Power of Remembering the Holocaust in VR (Wired)

Starting Thursday, Tribeca Film Festival attendees will be able to walk alongside Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter as he tours the concentration camp where his parents and sister lost their lives during World War II in The Last Goodbye, an immersive virtual reality testimony co-produced by USC Shoah Foundation.

The experience will premiere within the Festival’s cutting edge new media program, Tribeca Immersive, in the Storyscapes section. Tribeca Immersive is on display at Spring Studios, at the Tribeca Festival Hub on the fifth floor, April 21-29, 12-5 p.m.

In The Last Goodbye, powerful testimony of the tragedy of the Holocaust is preserved for the first time in poignant, room-scale VR, as survivor Pinchas Gutter takes audiences with him on his final visit to Majdanek Concentration Camp where his parents and sister were murdered during World War II.

The Last Goodbye was created by award-winning filmmaker Gabo Arora and Ari Palitz, produced by Arora and Stephen Smith, the executive director of USC Shoah Foundation, and co-produced by Here Be Dragons, MPC VR and Otoy, in partnership with LightShed and USC Shoah Foundation. It features an original soundtrack by Dražen Bošnjak of Q Department and Installation Experience by David Korins.

The team traveled with Gutter to Poland this summer to capture tens of thousands of photos and hours of 3D video on site, to create an experience that enables viewers to virtually walk with Gutter as he tours the railway car, gas chamber, shower room and barracks of Majdanek.

The photoreal experience presents a new way of capturing truth for the future, encouraging viewers to explore the spaces it brings to life. Gutter stands inside each vivid environment recounting his heartbreaking story of suffering and loss, which ends as a testament to the strength of the human heart and the enduring twin powers of hope and perseverance.