Doha Film Festival

Visitors to the second annual Doha Tribeca Film Festival witnessed firsthand the latest in projection screen technology and acoustic and architectural draping thanks to custom creations from ShowTex Middle East.

Not only that, all decorative fabrics, print canvases, and soft furnishings for the multiple venues were manufactured in a ShowTex workshop. For the screening room ShowTex supplied a white FP Supermat Perforato projection screen and frame measuring 70 m², side masking finish, and black acoustically transparent velvet velour drapes. Adjustable masking was mounted on ShowTrack curtain tracks and the EasyDrape pipe and drape system.

Films shown in the Opera House were viewed on a 84 m² FP Supermat Perforato projection screen also finished with side masking. The screening theatre also made use of the sound transparent velvet curtains mounted on ShowTrack. The unique black drapes only let sound through, but block much of the light making it the ideal fabric for movie screen borders. In combination with the perforated projection screens, both sound and viewing quality are optimized.

For the outdoor movie theatre, an Acoustic Baffle was constructed from Wool Serge Panne that formed a heavy but flexible sound absorption barrier to prevent reverberation between the movie screen and the speakers. The sound curtain, encompassing 1.5 kilometers of Wool Serge Panne flame retardant fabric, had a 200% pleat and measured more than 540 m². The curtain is a visual and technical stunner, the curved track mounting combined with the massive pleating required the ultimate attention to detail to do justice to the original design. In the end, the audience was the winner, enjoying perfect sound quality and a gorgeous architectural dressing of the stage.

The coinciding photographic exhibition "I am Film" by Brigitte Lacombe also featured digitally printed canvases by ShowTex. The high contrast and perfectly accurate reproductions of the original artwork onto canvas ensured the black and white images met the standards of photographer and art critic alike.

As Doha Film Institute's (DFI) annual celebration of all things film, DTFF is a community-minded, five-day event that showcases the best of Arab and international films, and has a full program of festival activities to engage the community, industry and filmmakers.  Events include panel discussions, informal VIP events, audience-interactive Q & A's, a Family Day with live entertainment, and a multimedia exhibit dedicated to cinema figures, soon to be unveiled at DTFF's new hub, Katara, the Cultural Village, situated on the eastern coast of Doha.