From the roots of 360° cinema to virtual reality experience
Lübeck, Oct. 24th, 2018. The 360° films at the Nordic Film Days Lübeck (Oct. 30 – Nov.4, 2018) in the “immersive media” section will once again be presented in an inflatable Fulldome cinema in the heart of Lübeck at Klingenberg square. And once again, the programme is made possible with the support of the Lübeck public utilities company. Although this is only the third year of the Fulldome experience at the NFL, it’s already impossible to imagine the festival without it. The 360° film programme comprises 14 films, including a world premiere with “The Baltic Sea” (FIN 2018, dir: Hannes Vartiainen, Pekka Veikkolainen). The poetic underwater cinematic journey shows the beauty of the Baltic Sea, while also addresses the issue of pollution. With “Lucia, the Secret of Shooting Stars” (FRA 2018), we welcome a sequel to the children’s film “Polaris – The Space Submarine and the Mystery of the Polar Night”, shown at last year’s NFL, to the tent.This time, polar bear Vladimir and penguin James join hummingbird Lucia on a trip to investigate shooting stars and meteorites.
During the 60th anniversary edition of the festival, the inflatable cinema takes on a special aspect. The films selected create a bridge between early planetariums as the forerunner of modern-day 360° cinema, and the technical opportunities of modern immersive media such as virtual reality. One of the highlights this year is the discovery of a 1937 star projector, such as those used in planetariums, that was “made in Lübeck” for a school in Copenhagen. The machine was developed by a trio of Lübeckers, and manufactured by E. Nachtigall & Co., which had its headquarters a bare 100 meters from Klingenberg square. The projector was the impetus for a special event this year called “Lights Over Lübeck”, which will bring the machine back to its birthplace in Lübeck for the festival, accompanied by Carsten Skovgård Andersen, director of the Copenhagen Planetarium Stjernekammeret. In daily screenings, with a children’s programme in the morning, and an evening programme, which will also touch on the device’s origins, the actual stars above Lübeck can be experienced as projections using the historical machine, a “journey through the night”. The Lübeck observatory is also contributing to the astronomic fun. There will be lectures in the Fulldome on astronomy in Lübeck, and outside on the square, telescopes will be set up to observe the real heavens – during the day the sun, and after dark (assuming clouds don’t get in the way), Lübeck’s night sky.
Once again this year, the Nordic Film Days Lübeck invite audiences to a free trial visit to the Fulldome. In keeping with this year’s festival focus on the centenary of the founding of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as of Iceland’s independence, the NFL will have “Open Dome Sessions”. On each day of the festival, at different times of day, visitors are invited to watch “Baltic States 100” and “Iceland 100” in the 360° format.The two films present landscape panoramas and mood images from the various countries.
A very special event this year will be the screening of “Code of Freedom 1991” (LIT 2018, dir: Andrius Lekavicius). In this virtual reality installation adapted for the dome, the dramatic events in the wake of Lithuania’s split from the Soviet Union became palpable for the viewer. And Lübeck itself, which is celebrating its 875th anniversary this year, will also be part of the 360° experience “Lübeck 875 – Lübeck Tells Us a Story” took visions of the future dreamed up by city residents and turned them into projections for the Fulldome. With his unusual live audio-visual experiment “The Beginning of Sound”, musician and DJ Sven Meyer invites audiences to chill out when he takes music and sounds and turns them into impressive visual imagery and watery shapes projected onto the dome. To round out the film fun, every day from 11 am to 10 pm, the square outside the dome will be host to a food court, where festival-goers can enjoy culinary delights from the Baltic countries, as well as an abundant selection of beers from all over the northern climes.
The full schedule of Fulldome screenings is here, alongside the complete schedule of films and events at the upcoming 60th Nordic Film Days Lübeck, which has been available on the festival homepage since October 20, 2018.
Press photos for the festival films are now available for download, alongside complete information about the festival at www.nordische-filmtage.de; follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Advance ticket sales begin on October 27 at 3:00 pm at the CineStar Filmpalast Stadthallecinema, online at the festival website, and at www.cinestar.de.
Press contact:
Silke Lehmann, Charlotte Roggenbuck, Elisabeth Wrage, Franziscca Reppmann
Press and Publicity Department
Nordic Film Days Lübeck
Schildstr. 12, 23539 Lübeck
presse@nordische-filmtage.de
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