FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2003
NEW YORK DVD BRINGS KINO INTERNATIONAL’S AMERICAN FILM THEATRE DVD SERIES TO LIFE
Classic 1970’s Film Adaptations of Great Plays Packaged for DVD With Extensive Bonus Material
NEW YORK, NY — NewYorkDVD, a leading provider of expert DVD authoring services, has assisted in a theatrical comeback that hasn’t been seen in New York since Carol Channing’s celebrated return to ‘Hello, Dolly.’
The recent DVD release of Kino International’s ‘American Film Theatre’ series, a three-part series of 14 film adaptations of classic plays — produced in the 1970’s by Ely Landau and featuring such renowned actors and directors as Lee Marvin, Katherine Hepburn, Glenda Jackson, Ian Holm, Tony Richardson, and John Frankenheimer — is a boon for both theatre-on-film and DVD fans alike. The films, originally released in a limited screening, subscription-ticket-only fashion, have not been seen for almost 30 years, with previously limited releases on VHS. NewYorkDVD provided encoding, authoring, and overall technical direction work for 9 of the 14 titles, including ‘The Maids,’ with Glenda Jackson and Susannah York; ‘The Iceman Cometh,’ with Lee Marvin and Jeff Bridges; ‘The Man in the Glass Booth,’ with Maximillian Schell; ‘Luther,’ with Stacy Keach, and ‘The Homecoming,’ with Ian Holm.
Best known for its collection of classic silent films, including those of Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith, Kino has discovered a rich market for specialty DVDs, with extra features packaged in a way that documents the entire production experience.
“DVD has been great for us; we’ve done bigger and better every step of the way, and it now comprises the majority of our business. It is the perfect format for us,” said Brian Shirey, director of operations for DVD and video, for Kino. “NewYorkDVD was able to work closely with us on all aspects of the DVDs, from how much content to place on each disk, to the compression rate and interactivity. NewYorkDVD was able to provide the kind of service that we needed in order to ensure the highest levels of quality on strict budgets and schedules.”
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With the American Film Theatre series, Shirey worked closely with Ely Landau’s son-in-law, Michael Kantor, a producer with flagship New York PBS affiliate Thirteen WNET-TV, to capture the essence of the series as an entity, including film trailers on 12 of the 14 discs. Shirey also produced interviews on several discs (for example, separate interviews with playwright Edward Albee and cinematographer David Watkins appear on disc for ‘A Delicate Balance’), and several discs feature a promotional film made for American Film Theatre, featuring Ely Landau, from 1974. Each disc features a stills gallery, the “American Film Theatre scrapbook,” an “AFT Cinebill” for each film, and an essay on each film by Michael Feingold, chief theater critic of the Village Voice.
NewYorkDVD’s president, Brian Brodeur, encoded the Kino American Film Theatre titles using a Sonic Solutions Creator system, working from Digital Betacam master tapes. A Berklee College of Music-trained musician, Brodeur worked in the Boston theater circuit for several years before venturing into video production, so his sense of theatrical presentation lended itself well to the Kino American Film Theatre project.
“The Kino series exemplifies what DVD is all about; they had all the elements of a jewel-box presentation. In the case of the American Film Theatre series, it was almost as if you were packaging the material for first viewing. They really understand how to present film on DVD, just as if you were receiving reels of film, with promotional materials, at a cinema,” said Brodeur. “We were able to get a quality level on DVD that is pretty stunning, and Kino’s attention to detail is impeccable. The fact that I’m several blocks away from their office certainly helped during this process. This is a benchmark project for so-called ‘lost films.’”
The Kino American Film Theatre series has been released in three volumes, as box sets and individual titles. The American Film Theatre Box 1, released in May, 2003, includes ‘The Iceman Cometh;’ ‘Rhinoceros;’ ‘Butley;’ ‘The Maids,’ and ‘Luther.’ The American Film Theatre Box 2, released in July, 2003, includes ‘A Delicate Balance;’ ‘The Man in the Glass Booth;’ ‘In Celebration;’ ‘Three Sisters,’ and ‘The Homecoming.’ In September, American Film Theatre Box 3 will be released, which will include ‘Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris;’ ‘Lost in the Stars;’ ‘Galileo,’ and ‘Philadelphia, Here I Come.’
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About Kino International
Kino International was founded in 1977, as a theatrical distribution company specializing in classics and foreign language art films. The company focuses on the distribution of high-quality contemporary world cinema, American independents, and documentaries – usually by up-and-coming directors. Kino began operation with a license to handle theatrical distribution of the Janus Collection, a library containing over 100 important European and Asian art films of the 40s, 50s and 60s, including ‘La Strada,’ ‘The Rules Of The Game,’ and ‘Rashomon.’ Chaplin films, including ‘Modern Times’ and ‘City Lights,’ The Killiam Shows Library, including ‘Son Of The Sheik’ and ‘It,’ The David O. Selznick collection, including ‘Rebecca’ and ‘Notorious,’ the Alexander Korda London Films library including ‘Things To Come’ and ‘The Thief Of Bagdad’ (1940), the Walter Wanger Collection including ‘Stagecoach,’ ‘To Be Or Not To Be’ and even some wide screen epics like ‘El Cid’ and George Stevens’s ‘Giant.’
Kino has more recently released offerings from the CIFEX, Corinth and Mosfilm libraries, enjoying many theatrical reissue successes. Among these were ‘Wages Of Fear’ (with forty minutes of restored material), Tarkovsky’s ‘Solaris,’ Fellini’s ‘La Strada’ and his brilliant ‘8 1/2,’ Fritz Lang’s ‘M’ (with ten minutes of restored material), Volker Schlöndorff’s multi-prize-winning ‘The Tin Drum’ and, most recently, a 50th anniversary reissue of Vittorio De Sica’s ‘The Bicycle Thief.’
About Kino on Video
Kino established its own label, Kino On Video, in 1987. Kino on Video has contributed significantly to the resurrection and distribution of films from the silent era,
130 silent films on video, many through our rewarding association with Film Preservation Associates, headed by film historian David Shepard.
Among the highlights of Kino’s silent catalogue are the five-part series “The Movies Begin”, consisting of 122 films made between 1894 and 1914, the ten-part series “The Art Of Buster Keaton”, released in 1995 and winner of Entertainment Weekly Magazine’s “Best Video of the Year” award, “The Slapstick Encyclopedia”, and more recently, the 1924 version of Peter Pan.
In 1999, Kino issued its first DVD release, a special edition of The Tin Drum with full audio narration by Volker Schlöndorff. Kino now has thirty-eight titles available on DVD, including the entire Buster Keaton collection. Another thirty to forty titles are scheduled for release on DVD in the next twelve months.
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About NewYorkDVD
NewYorkDVD’s principal, Brian Brodeur has been producing music and multimedia for over 15 years. He has created award-winning DVD’s for the corporate, entertainment and instructional markets, including discs for Pfizer, Hal Leonard Publishing, Music Sales Corporation, and Fender Guitars. Mr. Brodeur is an expert in all stages of DVD production from audio and video compression, to designing creative interactivity and programming stable DVD functionality that enhances the user experience.
NewYorkDVD’s extensive capabilities include motion menu design, comprehensive graphic design, expert-level multi-pass encoding, creative authoring, surround sound mixing, multi-language translations, subtitling, and multi-angle video. In addition, NewYorkDVD is capable of replicating discs in small or large quantities at competitive prices. Its alliance with Hudson Music enhances NewYorkDVD’s ability to better serve its clients by offering video post-production, comprehensive color correction, motion computer-generated graphics and effects, and creative multi-level videos.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: For a color photograph of NewYorkDVD’s Brian Brodeur, as well as Kino American Film Theatre DVD promotional shots, please contact Chris Pfaff at 201-218-0262 or chris@chrispfafftechmedia.com