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Emerging Picture
After years of hard work Emerging Pictures has opened America’s
first all-digital commercial cinema.
Emerging Pictures is a New York based company engaged in the distribution
and exhibition of independent films and alternate content in digital
format. The company, founded by HDTV pioneer Barry Rebo, home theatre
industry entrepreneur Giovanni Cozzi and independent film industry icon
Ira Deutchman, has been involved in the digital cinema industry since
its beginning.
“The use of digital technologies creates cost efficiencies in
distribution and exhibition that will enable Emerging Cinema outlets
to present specialized content,” they say on their Web site. This
includes such things “as international film festival presentations,
first run independent/international films, high definition productions
of concerts, operas, live theater, documentaries, as well as children's
programming and other educational programs.”
Part of their business model has been to partner with landmark theatres
across North America. They supply the digital cinema technology and also
the content.
One of their more visible successes came this past March with the all-digital
release of This Old Cub, the story of Chicago Cub’s legend
Ron Santo in six theatres. The movie was the fourth highest grossing
independent release in the nation for its first the week end, on a per-screen
basis, bringing in $5208 per venue.
The movie was truly digital and never left the digital domain from capture,
through post-production and all the way through exhibition.
And now comes perhaps their greatest success to date.
Emerging Pictures has launched a new commercial art-house screen in
Manhattan that they claim as the first all digital commercial theatre
in the United States.
They see this move as their first step in a plan to develop a 400-screen
digital theater chain at non-traditional art-house venues without the
use of film projection. The company has based its New York venue at the
Off-Broadway complex, Theater Row on 42nd Street in Manhattan.
Theatre Row, a group of five stages in the Theater District of New York
City, will dedicate one of its venues to "Emerging Cinemas at Theatre
Row" for calendar programming that will present indie films, foreign
films, docs, revivals and more.
Theatres at Theatre Row range in size from 88 seats to 199 seats. Depending
on Theatre Row's live performance commitments, Emerging Pictures will
be able to easily shift to larger or smaller houses given the portability
of its digital equipment.
The Theatre Row site also includes a café and bar for audiences.
"Theatre Row's five stage complex is a terrific example of the
unique types of performing arts centers that Emerging will be partnering
with throughout the United States,” Rebo recently told the press.
"Being a New York-based company we're particularly pleased to have
found such a wonderful venue in our home town. This is an institution,
with the addition of our film programming, that will be bringing film
and theatre together in ways we hope will make it a destination for the
creative community as well as the general public."
The first film shown at the new venue was the Emerging Pictures release, Home
of the Brave. The film, by Paola di Florio, is a documentary about
Viola Liuzzo, the only white woman killed during the U.S. civil rights
movement.
This is only the beginning.
Emerging Pictures www.emergingpictures.com
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