Cinema Purgatorio
 
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About

Cinema Purgatorio is a full service film and video distribution and exhibition company.  The company works with producers and filmmakers to find unconventional distribution, exhibition, and promotional solutions, from publicity to projection and packaging.  Cinema Purgatorio serves theatrical, "non-theatrical," educational, and consumer markets, adjusting strategies based on the project at hand, using physical and internet means across traditional celluloid, physical video, and online video platforms.

Founded in fall 2007, Cinema Purgatorio has quickly become a significant ally for filmmakers and distributors whose projects require and reward special care.  Since the company's founding, Cinema Purgatorio has set somewhere near 1000 showtimes, reaching across almost every U.S. state, including Hawaii and Alaska, and also into Canada, Iceland, Sweden, and beyond.  We have shown at the most prestigious museums, and also the most down-and-out dives.

Cinema Purgatorio's clients and collaborators have included:

  • rock band the Flaming Lips ("The greatest US band today" - The Guardian) and Warner Brothers Records for public exhibition of their film Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips (70 plus cities, and counting);
  • musician and performer Björk and Nonesuch Records for a 20 city release of their concert film Voltaic;
  • film industry legend Richard Lorber for distribution management on Alive Mind Media and Lorber Films (20+ titles / year on educational and home video, many of these also to theatrical and non-theatrical markets); 
  • filmmaker Lech Majewski, who was hailed in 2006 with a rare, full, mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, and also had a specialized theatrical tour organized by International Film Circuit, followed by a DVD release of four titles through Kino International;
  • contemporary documentary filmmaker Daniel Kraus for his epoch-defining Work Series;
  • New York City filmmaker and Scareflix producer Larry Fessenden for projects including Trigger Man, directed by Ti West; and I Can See You, directed by Graham Reznick.  Kino International purchased video rights to both Trigger Man and I Can See You following Cinema Purgatorio's work with them.

Ray Privett established Cinema Purgatorio LLC in 2007.  For ten years, Privett has helped filmmakers, producers, and venue administrators execute shows and find unconventional ways of reaching today’s film audiences. For four years, he was distribution coordinator at Chicago's Facets Multi-Media, then for four years he was Programmer and General Manager of the Pioneer Theater in New York City, during that theater's most successful period.  He chose to leave the Pioneer, to develop Cinema Purgatorio and other performing arts projects.

To establish a long-term New York City home for Christmas on Mars and select other projects, Cinema Purgatorio installed "Cinema Purgatorio at the Kraine Theater": a collapsible, high-definition screening room extension to the KGB Complex's Kraine Theater, 85 East Fourth Street, Manhattan.  In audio and visual quality, this system rivals any similarly sized screening room across the city.  When set up, the space looks and feels like a grindhouse movie theater; when torn down, the system does not interfere at all with live stage performances.

    

"Cinema Purgatorio has taken Christmas on Mars to places we never thought possible! And we dream big! Thanks for everything!"
- Scott Booker, Manager, the Flaming Lips

"[a] left-field distribution house..."
 - Wired Magazine

"...we’re gonna continue partnering with him because Ray is a great, hard worker. He has helped us on a lot of movies, and it’s time for us to team up in public instead of him just slaving away in the dark.”
 - Larry Fessenden, Director and Producer, Head of Glass Eye Pix studio

We are not affiliated with the supplier using our name on ioffer.com and ecrater.com.

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