Planetary Projection
Project Coordinator: Marina Uzunova
On the eve of sweeping technological changes to film exhibition that will irrevocably alter the way films are screened and viewed, caboose launches the collaborative on-line project Planetary Projection, introducing some of the world’s remarkable film projectionists. We invite you to help us find a few more, in every corner of the globe, so that they might tell us their stories. Together, these vignettes will paint a unique grassroots portrait of film projectionists today; later we hope to include other passionate film people working in the margins of the film milieu or indulging their love of film in unusual ways.
Projection has been a central part of cinema from the beginning – the Lumière Cinématographe camera doubled as its own projector – but has received little critical or scholarly attention, and projectionists themselves even less. Around the world, the variety of projection practices throughout film history has been a part of the diversity of global film culture. What will happen to that diversity when this variety disappears under the weight of digital technologies?
Planetary Projection invites film projectionists around the world to describe their work and their often idiosyncratic view of film in capsule portraits either written first-hand or composed by local correspondents out of interviews. Web surfers will discover a gallery of film “characters” who are not shy about their tastes and opinions when it comes to cinema, each with his or her own peculiar answer to that age-old question: what is cinema? Along the way, readers will learn about technical matters and get a rare glimpse of film exhibition practices around the world.
Our on-line album will gradually form and grow. A printed book is planned when enough portraits have been created. You can help by telling us about projectionists you know or by becoming an informal regional correspondent in search of more projectionists on our behalf. For more information, contact project coordinator Marina Uzunova. You can also download this one-page PDF description of the project to circulate to people you think might be interested in it.
While we build our web page for the project, we invite you to read these three sample vignettes, written by projectionists in Brazil, the United States and Ireland, and to read an article on early film projectionists by caboose proprietor Timothy Barnard, in its published English, French and Spanish versions. We'll be posting contributions soon by projectionists in Australia, Canada, England, India, Iran, Macedonia, South Africa and the United States, for now!
