LAST August Prešov’s Culture and Leisure Park (PKO) acquired the right to operate the former town cinema known as Panoráma and it is busy reviving this historical venue. The cinema has returned to its historical name, Scala, and PKO has been developing its design concept. The interior has been reconstructed using €20,000 of PKO funds and Emil Chlapeček, the head of the PKO, told the SITA newswire that it plans to organise musical evenings and social events in addition to movie screenings.
The reconstruction has involved new electrical wiring, renovations of the boiler room and dressing rooms, and a new stage as well as improvements in sound equipment and other technology. Chlapeček said a Movie Viewers Club was established at the end of 2009 and it is offering a choice of quality films. Each Tuesday Scala features a movie appealing to the most demanding fans and film connoisseurs and many of them will be Slovak or Czech, with some films offered by the Czech Centre in Košice which is cooperating with Scala.
On March 18, the cinema will offer three films from the Prague Festival of Hardbitten Viewers – two Pakistani and one Indonesian film. The cinema is also offering movie-making amateurs the opportunity to use Scala to shoot and cut their films – between one and five minutes long – and to perhaps compete in the Azyl festival. Some works shown at Febiofest, the international film, TV and video festival, will also be screened at Scala.
