“Side by Side,” the doc that looks at digital technology’s effect on filmmaking screens Monday, Sept. 17 at the Gene Siskel Film Center (GSFC). With the inexorable replacement of film by digital formats, movies are the most drastic upheaval since sound in 1929. Does the digital revolution spell doom or new horizons for the medium?
The doc is narrated by Keanu Reaves, and deftly combines a lucid overview, juicy clips, and personal opinions from Martin Scorese, Christopher Nolan, George Lucas, David Fincher, the Wachowskis, and many other key filmmakers and technicians.
For an exhibitor, this documentary is relevant to the GSFC which currently has a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) for D-Cinema projector in its large theater, Theater 1, and has plans to install a DCP in its small theater, Theater 2, in the winter 2012-2013 to fulfill the demand of transitioning from the 35mm film format to digital.
This raises a debate, between filmmakers, cinephiles, and exhibitors who embrace new technology versus film analog purists and asks 1) Is this a reliable format? 2) Is this a mandate from the Hollywood studio system in order to monopolize theatrical distribution?
A panel discussion follows the 6 p.m. Sept. 17 screening, with Barbara Scharres, Director of Programming of the GSFC; Chicago Reader film critic Ben Sachs,; director Dan Nearing, whose films screened in the Center’s Black Harvest festivals and SAIC film, video, new media and animation professor and filmmaker Daniel Eisenberg.
At the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164, N. State; tickets, $11.
