Smiltene marks 100 years since its cinema was founded

An exhibition titled "Smiltene Cinema 100" is open until 31 December during working hours in the cinema corridor of the Smiltene Municipality Cultural Centre. It marks 100 years since a cinema began operating in Smiltene, a small town in the Vidzeme region of Latvia. The display traces how film came to the town and how it has been preserved, but in recent years the venue has been called a cinema hall, which upsets Gunārs Liedags, a longtime keeper of Smiltene's film traditions.

The beginning in 1926

The year 1926 is regarded as the birth of cinema in Smiltene. That year local resident Anna Andrejeva set up a permanent cinema called "Atpūta" on her property on Mūrnieku Street, where a dairy now stands. The name changed over time to "Gaisma", "Kosmoss" and "Kino 80". Today it is the Cultural Centre's cinema hall, without a specific name, and the local municipality looks after it.

The exhibition features photographs, materials from the Smiltene municipal library's local history collection, old posters and a Soviet-era 35-millimetre projector. The original Smiltene projector no longer exists, as it was scrapped, so the equipment was lent by Aivars Pugeja, a resident of Balvi municipality. According to the exhibition, cinemas in Vidzeme now operate only in Smiltene, Valmiera, Cēsis and Madona.

Exhibition idea author Matīss Strautiņš, the Cultural Centre's film projectionist, said finding exhibits was the hardest part. He thanked colleagues and especially Liedags, saying cinema in Smiltene would not be what it is without him. Strautiņš is responsible for the hall's operation, repertoire and themed events.

Programme and the question of the name

This month's programme includes several Latvian films: Laila Pakalniņa's "Es domāju par kaķi", Andrejs Ēķis's spy thriller "Tumšā robeža", Viesturs Kairišs's drama "Uļa", Reinis Kalviņš's "Klajumā aiz meža", Viktors Buda's documentary "Ceļš nekad nebeidzas" and Kristīne Želve's "Mildas istaba".

Liedags believes the cinema's name has been lost, even though Smiltene's digital cinema is, in his words, the only one of its kind in a small Latvian town. In 2014 the municipality spent more than 70,000 euros on digital equipment. The exhibition says that when the culture house reconstruction began in 2011, the premises were narrowed and no longer met cinema requirements, so they became a cinema hall.