Movie theatres may have closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but arthouse distributors are helping indie cinemas stay in business during the crisis.
The Paradise Theatre is teaming with New York-based distributor Film Movement and industry group Arthouse Convergence to make first-run movies and restored classics available to stream online.
Starting today (March 27), viewers will be able to rent Polish filmmaker Jan Komasa’s Oscar-nominated Corpus Christi and Chinese director Diao Yinan’s atmospheric neo-noir Wild Goose Lake via the streaming platform Film Movement Plus.
Tickets cost $12 and the Paradise will receive 50 per cent of all sales. Viewers have 72 hours to watch the title on their TV, mobile device or computer.
Since launching on March 20, Film Movement’s virtual initiative has expanded to 20 cinemas across North America. Other titles, like Luchino Visconti’s final film L’Innocente and Sonia Braga’s 1976 comedy Dona Flor And Her Two Husbands, are also available through the program.
Meanwhile, across town the Fox Theatre is partnering with New York-based distributor Kino Lorber to show Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’s pulpy thriller Bacurau online from April 3-9.
The company’s Kino Marquee program launched last week and has since expanded to 150 cinemas across North America. In a statement, CEO Richard Lorber calls the project “a lifeline to help keep art house cinemas in business and keep the work of top independent filmmakers under the halo of first release virtual screens.”
Kino Marquee rentals are good for five days and the directors and cast of Bacurau are participating in a virtual Q&A hosted by Brooklyn’s BAM on April 1 at 8 pm. Kino Lorber also plans to make more of its upcoming first-run and rep titles, as well as films from other indie distributors, available via the platform.
@nowtoronto
