Smaller Cinemas Hurt by Lack of Digital Equipment
This year's Black Nights Film Festival will probably be the last to feature showings in smaller cities and towns across Estonia, says the director of the event, which starts next week.
Only Tallinn, Tartu and Narva have digital-ready cinemas, said Tiina Lokk, making it harder for smaller places to show the festival offerings, which are increasingly not available in 35mm format.
This year the festival was able to get only 40 of the 260-plus films on 35mm reels. The next year this number will be even lower, Lokk predicts, judging by developments in the last three years.
"This year, Black Nights will be in other cities for the last time. It isn't possible for us to send anything there as DVD screenings just aren't up to quality and they aren't sent to us either," Lokk told ETV.
The festival starts on November 12 with two sub-festivals - Justfilm and Sleepwalkers. It moves to the smaller towns only at the end of the month and lasts for a few days into early December after the main festival is over.
Lokk says going digital would have major benefits for Estonia, especially for distributing Estonian films, ETV reported.
The lack of digital equipment is also affecting Hollywood film screenings. Merle Kobolt, director of Pärnu's Mai cinema, said that some cinemas have had to recuse themselves from trying to land Hollywood films. The new Bond film will not be screened in Pärnu for another month, when the 35mm copy ends its run in Tallinn and Tartu.
The Ministry of Culture's film adviser Edith Sepp visited county cinemas across Estonia last summer to map the situation. Sepp told ETV negotiations are in progress with some cinemas to decide how much funding the state can provide for the purpose.