Two films from the Sundance Collection were screened simultaneously in three cities using some exciting new technology. The program is part of a digital revolution for theatrical exhibition that is creating a stir here at the Sundance Film Festival.
Two films from the Sundance Collection were screened simultaneously in three cities using some exciting new technology. The program is part of a digital revolution for theatrical exhibition that is creating a stir here at the Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Collection was created ten years ago to preserve significant independent films at the UCLA Film Archives in Los Angeles. Each year at the Sundance Film Festival, film classics from the Collection are screened. This year, the Festival is presenting MALA NOCHE, the debut film from Gus Van Sant and PARIS, TEXAS, a classic from German auteur Wim Wenders. In a collaboration with Intel, MALA NOCHE was screened simultaneously for audiences in Park City, UT, Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY. On January 21, high-speed wired and wireless technologies including WiMAX, an advanced wireless broadband technology, were used to transmit a high–definition, digitally restored version of Gus Van Sant's film MALA NOCHE (1985) to audiences in Los Angeles, New York City and Park City. Using a high-speed, broadband Internet link from a server in Portland, Oregon, where the film was created, the high-tech company Intel transmitted the digitized film to receiving computers at the film schools of the University of California at Los Angeles and New York University, and to an audience at the Sundance Film Festival, which runs January 19 to 29 in Park City, Utah.
The digital print traveled more than 3,000 miles through wireless links and high-speed wired connections, to deliver the digital content simultaneously to all three locations. The WiMAX technology involved is experimental today, but could someday be used for the wireless distribution of HD digital video and audio quality films to neighborhood theaters everywhere, without the hassle or cost of conventional print film reels.
Sandy Mandelberger, Industry Editor
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