Digimart

Montréal, August 22, 2005

From September 21 to 24, approximately thirty renowned specialists and pioneers will participate in the first global digital distribution summit at Ex-Centris.

Over three days of working sessions and discussions, this unique professional event will assemble the world’s finest thinkers, industry professionals and filmmakers/artists at the forefront of developing and testing new tools for the digital distribution and transport of cinematic works, opening the road to more numerous and more diverse distribution channels for independent film. All communications and activities will be supplemented with a simultaneous translation system. Registrations are limited.

Digital pioneers awaited:

Peter BRODERICK played a key role in the growth of the ultra-low budget feature movement and is a leading advocate of digital moviemaking. He is President of Paradigm Consulting, which provides consulting services to filmmakers and media companies. He was founder and President of Next Wave Films, which helped launched the careers of exceptionally talented filmmakers from the U.S. and abroad. Next Wave financed digital features through its production arm – Agenda 2000.

Lucinda ENGLEHART is the distributor responsible for the alternative distribution strategy of U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin Festival in 2005;

Chow KEUNG is the co-producer of The World (Venice 2004) and the cofounder of Xstream pictures, based in Hong Kong and Beijing, which works with young directors. He is actively involved in digital production and distribution in China;

Stefan KASPAR is originally from Switzerland and has been based in Lima for two decades. He is the founder of Casablanca, a production and distribution company. As the initiator of a collective of independent filmmakers called Grupo Chaski, he uses digital technology to showcase the richness and variety, and broaden the reach of Latin American cinema in Peru and Bolivia through his Microcinema network;

Jason KLIOT is the co-president of HDNet Films, the HD production arm of HDNet, the United States’ first nationwide cable and satellite HD production and distribution network. As President of Blow Up Pictures, he was a pioneer in digital production. He produced Lovely & Amazing, Series 7: The Contenders and Chuck and Buck.

Rob NILSSON is the independent American director of Northern Lights (Camera d’Or, Cannes), and one of the pioneers in the development of the processes and techniques that led to today’s digital revolution. For several years he has been working on a series of films, 9@Night, which are shot, produced and distributed digitally.

Specialists closely involved in the establishment of digital theatre networks:

Peter BUCKINGHAM is Head of Distribution and Exhibition for the UK Film Council. He is responsible for instigating the UK Digital Cinema Network which will install digital projectors in 209 screens in the UK to screen non-Hollywood films.

Nicholas CLAY is the president of AVICA Technology Corporation, an American company that is behind a project to establish a network of 500 digital theatres in Ireland;

Ira DEUTCHMAN is the president of Emerging Pictures (United States), a pioneering company in the digital distribution of independent films across a network of independent theatres in the United States;

Rickard GRAMFORS is the project lead for Sweden’s Digital Houses, Europe’s first network of digital theatres;

Bjorn KOLL is the German partner for CinemaNet Europe, a digital cinema network for the satellite distribution of independent films in eight European countries. He is also the leader of a German documentary distribution company, Salzgeber & Co. Medien.

Fabio LIMA is the cofounder of Rain Networks, a Brazilian distribution company and digital cinema distribution network;

Nico SIMON is the president of Europa Cinémas, a European network that, through its digital-cinema program, supports and guides theatres in the transition to digital. He is also the president of Utopia/Utopolis, a digital-cinema complex in Luxembourg;

Patrick Von SYCHOWSKI is the business development director for Unique Digital (UK), and a founding member of the European Digital Cinema Forum (EDCF);

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