BEST YOUNG AUDIENCE ACTIVITIES:
KINO SOPRUS, TALLINN (ESTONIA)
EXHIBITOR: KATRIN RAJASAARE, AS TALLINNFILM

The Sõprus film theatre, a single-screen cinema with 281 seats in the heart of Tallinn run by AS Tallinnfilm, stands out thanks to the quality of its young audiences’ work. A whole host of diverse activities are organised there. In 2004, the cinema screened Estonian and Scandinavian films for children, films for young people of any origins, as well as organising special events, such as Friendship with the cinema.

Students are not overlooked either, as the Sõprus runs midnight screenings for them in spring and autumn, and hosts the Sleepwalkers’ Student Film Festival. While some initiatives are set up in cooperation with external partners, the Sõprus team headed by Katrin Rajasaare can take the credit for most of the activities. There is a solid promotion campaign for each event involving press, posters and flyers, “especially flyers because the children love to collect them,” Katrin Rajasaare explains. Usually it’s schools, kindergartens, bookshops and of course the Internet that pass on the message about Sõprus.

National films also figure in the young audiences’ programming schedule of the cinema, which has no qualms about screening the latest Estonian animated films as often as possible.

“The prize Europa Cinemas is awarding to us recognises our work, Katrin Rajasaare concludes. It will certainly help contribute to distribution of European films in the Baltic countries”.

(November 2005)

www.kino.ee