Thirst
Small films in a digital cinematic landscape
- The background for wanting to try digital screenings was to find out what this was about, and what digitalisation will mean to festivals and the smaller films, states Julie Ova, Managing director of Films from the South.
Gala screenings at Ringen Cinema
New this year are the so-called gala screenings at Ringen Cinema. These are films that already have a Norwegian distributor, but that Films from the South wants to emphasise during the festival. There will be torches and a red carpet and, not least, guests present at the screenings. What is special about the gala screenings is that Ringen Cinema is fully digitalised. This means that the films are only screened digitally, in the DCP format (Digital Cinema Package).
The films are Casanegra (Morocco, 2008) by Nour-Eddine Lakhmari, Machan (Sri-Lanka, 2008) by Uberto Pasolini, The Stoning of Soraya M (Iran, USA, 2008) by Cyrus Nowrasteh, Still Walking (Japan, 2008) by Hirokazu Kore-eda, The Milk of Sorrow (Peru, 2009) by Claudia Llosa and Thirst (South Korea, 2009) by Chan-wook Park.
Digitalisation
The organisation for the cinema and video industry, Film & Kino, bears the responsibility for the digitalisation of Norwegian cinemas. After a trial period that has been going on since 2006, several cinemas in Norway have been digitalised, including all the Cinematheques.
At Film & Kino’s web site we could read in August that ”the digital roll-out can start”. The public bids are initiated and if everything goes according to plan, the digitalisation of all Norwegian movie theatres will start around the turn of the year.
Small films in a digital cinematic landscape.
So DCP is the future for the Norwegian cinemas. But how will this development affect festivals and the distribution of smaller films? Ova thinks that despite the digitalisation, the future looks bright also for small films and festivals like Films from the South. But right now there is a challenge:
– For those who only make one copy of a film, digitalisation can be very expensive. Digital mastering costs a lot! But when one considers the advantages of high volume, digital prints are profitable long-term.
Ova says that Films from the South definitively has been dependent on co-operation with various partners during this project. Oslo Kino and Film & Kino have been invaluable but she emphasises that BUG has been a highly important partner in making the project successful. BUG is a Norwegian company that among other things delivers reasonably priced digital prints.
As the roll-out of digital cinema speeds up, both at home and around the world, the digital format will take over as the dominating screening format – both for small and bigger, commercial films. In the article ”Your Local Cinematheque” (http://montages.no/2009/02/ditt-lokale-cinematek/) about the National Digital Cinematheque, Eirik Smidesang Slåen writes: ”The digital cinema should be more than just a place for the consumption of new films. Variety and range should be as important goals as digital perfection in sound and image.”
Let us hope it turns out to be a balanced mixture!
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