Venice Film Festival's VR Theatre showcases 'Jesus VR' in 360-degree format

At the 2016 Venice Film Festival, the VR Theatre on the second floor of the Casino palace offered a 40-minute preview of 'Jesus VR – The Story of Christ', shot in Matera, Italy. The experience involved wearing a heavy headset and headphones in a brightly lit room with 50 white leather swivel chairs. The film, depicting the life of Jesus, featured low-resolution images and lacked exceptional cast or costumes. Viewers could rotate their chairs to see scenes from any angle, such as the Nativity or the Baptism of Christ. The reviewer noted that VR cinema currently eliminates authorship and resembles early cinema, where framing and editing were absent. The technology offers viewers the freedom to choose what to watch, but the artistic language is still nascent.