e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

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Kino International
http://www.edig.com/product.php
From Daboss

Kino International was founded in 1977 as a theatrical distribution company specializing in classics and foreign language art films. The company 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. Although Kino has grown considerably since then, we still are pleased to represent 35mm theatrical distribution for this great collection, which in some ways set the standard for all that has followed.

Building on this foundation, Kino acquired many classic feature films and packages for distribution to the then-vital repertory theatre circuit, which consisted of over two hundred active venues across the United States in the pre-cable, pre-video mid-70's. In addition to the Janus Collection, during its first ten years Kino distributed the 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 which we reissued very successfully. Kino retains some of these films, while others are now distributed by other companies.

Kino has broadened its offerings of classic films during the last decade to include films 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.

While continuing to distribute classic films in their original 35mm format, Kino took a new turn in 1980 with the acquisition and opening of Masahiro Shinoda's beautiful Japanese chamber piece The Ballad Of Orin. Since then, Kino has focused on the distribution of high-quality contemporary world cinema, American independents, and documentaries - usually by up-and-coming directors.



Among the films and filmmakers Kino has introduced to North American film audiences are:

Aki Kaurismäki's Ariel, The Match Factory Girl and La Vie De Bohème
Andre Techiné's Scene Of The Crime
Suzana Amaral's Hour Of The Star
Shohei Imamura's Vengeance Is Mine, Palme D'or winner The Ballad Of Narayama and Dr. Akagi
Julie Dash's Daughters Of The Dust
Victor Gaviria's Rodrigo D
Patrice Chereau's Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train
Mitsuo Yanagimachi's Himatsuri
Michel Khleifi's Wedding In Galilee
Wong Kar Wai's Fallen Angels and Happy Together
Cheick Oumar Sissoko's Guimba and Genesis
Ray Müller's The Wonderful, Horrible Life Of Leni Riefenstahl
Yim Ho's The Day The Sun Turned Cold
Amos Gitaï's Kadosh and Kippur
Percy Adlon's Sugarbaby
Chen Kaige's Life On A String
Bertrand Tavernier's L.627 and Capitaine Conan
Arnold Glassman, Todd McCarthy and Stuart Samuels' Visions Of Light
Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Blue Kite


Unable to find existing video distributors interested in purchasing small art films, Kino established its own label, Kino On Video, in 1987. Our first release, Mark Whitney's tapestry-like documentary on C.J. Jung, Matter Of Heart, was an immediate success, and set our new venture into video distribution off and running.

Kino on Video has grown substantially since that first release. It not only disseminates contemporary world cinema to communities and institutions which might not otherwise have access to those films, but also provides new life to many classic films which were not previously available to the public outside of a few big cities. Kino on Video has contributed significantly to the resurrection and distribution of films from the silent era, which are often prohibitively expensive to restore on film, but can be economically and beautifully preserved with new video and digital technologies.

Kino on Video issued its first series of silent films, "They Had Faces Then", in 1989. This ten title series included Erich Von Stroheim's Queen Kelly, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari and The Phantom Of The Opera. It was a smashing success, and filled a void by providing quality restorations of films from the silent period to the home and institutional collector. Since then we have released over 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 and today has more than two hundred and fifty titles available in that popular format. Some notable Kino DVD releases include: "The Art of Buster Keaton" collection, the restored version of METROPOLIS, and the complete 14-film "American Film Theatre" series. One hundred additional titles are available on VHS only.

Kino now boasts a catalog of one of the most important libraries of classic and contemporary world cinema titles available to the home video collector -- and the critics agree! In 2002 and in 2003 Kino on Video won the prestigious Heritage Award from the National Society of Film Critics for its work in film preservation.

Our 2004 release slate contains a number of important films which we will be introducing in the coming months. We anticipate these new films, like all films carrying the Kino logo, will bring to the screen imaginative and compelling cinema experiences.

See the Kino International Trailer:
QuickTime: 100k / 300k
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