“Samsara Ep1.” Puts Taiwan On the Map! New Media Artist Hsin-Chien Huang Wins the Top Awards of SXSW

The awards ceremony of the American international film festival, South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), will be held in the morning on March 20, 2021. The latest VR production created by artist Hsin-Chien Huang has taken the festival by storm and bring home the prestigious “Jury Awards” in the virtual cinema competition category. “Samsara Ep. 1” is the first VR production from Taiwan to receive such honor and has put the creativity of Taiwan on the map!

In the acceptance speech, Huang mentioned that he would like to thank the jury of SXSW for the recognition and encouragement. It was absolutely his honor to win this award. He’d also like to thank the full support from the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan, the Taiwan Creative Content Agency, and Kaohsiung Film Archive to make it possible to complete the work. Finally, he thanked all the crew members of the production for letting the world see how amazing the VR production from Taiwan.

The story background of “Samsara” is set as a timeline when humans completely destroyed the environment on earth and begin to go on a quest through space for hundreds of years. People try to immigrant to a new planet, so they redesign the DNA to adapt to a new environment and evolve into a new life form. However, after so many years, people gradually realize that it is never possible to find a new planet to settle. They merely keep returning to the original earth they have damaged in a different era, in a different life form, as an endless circle of reincarnation.

The plot involves many different social issues, including ecology, technology, natural resource, and war, and calls on viewers to reflect themselves with a profound philosophical perspective. Moreover, several concepts of embodied cognition are used in the story to make viewers transform into different animals, including Taiwan’s indigenous species, such as Taiwan Blue Magpie and Formosan Black Bear, to interact with the scenes. “Samsara Ep.1” also features the latest somatosensory technology, including the 4Dviews shooting techniques by the Industrial Technology Research Institute and Taiwan Creative Content Agency, with 48 4DV-EX-Z cameras and a digital shooting system composed of a high-sensitivity 4 million-pixel full-color CCD sensor. “Samsara Ep.1” is able to be taken from an omnidirectional view without blind spots and be shot without any blind spots to create the ultimate immersive experience.

The first SXSW was held in Austin, Texas in 1987. This long-standing international event is held around March every year ever since. The festival features various themes, such as films, music, VR/AR, art and games, etc. The SXSW is the world’s largest event for creative content. Many creators and brand owners in the fields will not miss out on the festival. Therefore, the festival has become a trial balloon, attracting hundreds of bands and film crews to participate, estimated over 400,000 people joining the event. This year, the festival has changed the event to an online form for the first time since the pandemic is raging as before. All screening events, industry matchmaking, seminars will be carried out via its own online platform, SXSW Online, without difficulty. It has made it possible for all the artists, creators, and professionals to break down the physical borders and participate in this magnificent annual event together. 

There are nine productions in total nominated in the Virtual Cinema Competition category this year, with teams from the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Poland, Australia, South Korea, and so on. This is the first time that “Samsara Ep.1” has competed in the international film festival and has achieved a great result with much international recognition. This is also the first time for Taiwanese production to receive an award from the SXSW competition. The full version of “Samsara” is expected to start the global tour in the second half of the year. Huang said that “Samsara” would return to Taiwan for its Asian premiere and ask the fans in Taiwan to stay tuned! 

Follow Huang Hsin-Chien’s Facebook page for more information about him and his work:

https://www.facebook.com/HuangXinJianHsinChienHuang

SXSW website ➡️ https://www.sxsw.com/festivals/film-awards/

SXSW Youtube😎 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9G_7NZh_Oo&feature=emb_logo

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