The Cathedral Of Christ Hosts First Film Premiere

The premiere of Vladimir Khotinenko's new film – Pop (aka The Priest) – which took place on Easter Sunday in the Church Council’s Hall of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, has become a unique event in the history of the Russian motion picture industry. Kinoproekt Company provided the technical support and installed the digital projection system supplied by Christie.
Pop had become an outstanding phenomenon amongst the Russian motion picture industry even before its official release. It is the first to be blessed by the Russian Orthodox Church. The production was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
Alexander Rubin, General Director of Kinoproekt Ltd., commented on the venue for the premiere: "The Hall is intended for church assemblies. It is a rather large hall with an amphitheatre and side balconies, but it is not fit for motion picture demonstration!
"However, there's no task is too big for Kinoproekt's engineers to implement. We installed the equipment for the first release of the picture – a Christie CP2000-ZX digital cinema projector, a 12.1 x 5.1-metre, white-matte screen and special acoustic system.
"The hall's architecture, including the many skylights in the cathedral, called for a solution to avoid an ambient illumination of the screen. And the solution was found: we draped the windows with a dense dark cloth," added Alexander.
The Christie CP2000-ZX projector was equipped with a CDXL-30SD lamp. Alexander explained the choice of the model: "The projector equipped with CDXL-30SD lamp gave us the opportunity to produce the ideal brightness of picture." A DoReMi DCP2000 server was used as the signal source."
Sergey Kravetz, Head of the Orthodox Encyclopaedia Film Company, noted: "Many people think that it was too daring to demonstrate a motion picture in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. But His Holiness Patriarch Kirill gave his personal consent to this premiere being held on Easter Sunday. We believe it was an outstanding event in the cultural life of the capital of the Russian Federation."
Alexander concluded: "Our engineers have a great experience in equipment installation at various venues. Each time the wide range of Christie projection equipment helps us to ensure the best possible solution and to make the first release unforgettable."
(BMcN/CD)