For Ingrid and Brian Jahra, co-founders of CinemaONE, parent company to IMAX, Gemstone and 4DX, one of their most memorable moments when they started dating was when they saw a documentary at an IMAX theatre in Southern California about the Serengeti.
Brian Jahra recalled fondly that they went to the theatre and, through the IMAX screen, they were instantly transported to Tanzania, where they could see up close where the elephants and buffalo roamed, and where the lions and leopards hunted.
After 27 years of marriage and three children they still share similar experiences, now with the entire family.
It is safe to say there are few people in the world who have not had a similar memorable experience – whether it is your first movie with a parent, or your first date with the girl or boy of your dreams, or a big lime with a group of friends – there is something about going to a movie theatre and being told an incredible story on a larger-than-life screen.
But in the past two years, with the world wrestling with one of its largest health crises since polio, the movie-going experience and those who provide that experience through cinemas face challenges like never before. With rampant lockdowns and restrictions, the cinema industry experienced severe blows.
Now, with restrictions slowly being lifted and the world learning how to not only fight against the virus but to live with it, cinema franchises like CinemaONE are expecting that people will once again come together and experience life through the silver screen.
'The stuff that dreams are made of' (The Maltese Falcon, 1941)
Brian told Business Day that for him, movies are a depiction of all our human interactions and imagination.
“When we experience a movie we get a sense of what the world could be. You could be a superhero, a sports star, a person who just fell in love or a deep-sea diver.”
[caption id="attachment_942733" align="alignnone" width="1024"] CinemaONE co-founder Brian Jahra is looking forward to the completion of the Gulf City Gemstone theatre. - PHOTO BY ANGELO MARCELLE[/caption]
Now with the world at people’s fingertips through mobile devices and access to movies expanded through streaming services, movie lovers, including those in Trinidad and Tobago, have become more sophisticated.
“Before the internet our choices were very limited on our island when it came to watching movies. Now you have a very sophisticated consumer that has multiple entertainment streams,” Ingrid Jahra said.
But Ingrid added that the appeal of going to the theatre has not changed.
“We still love going to the movies. We still love to come together and be in a dark room and have a shared experience,” Ingrid said. “So what we do is make that experience much more memorable.”
Brian said it was that desire which led him and his wife to establish CinemaONE in 2009. The immersive technology that came only with patented IMAX theatres – including laser projectors, 3D viewing, geometrical placing of seats and acoustics which included a 12,000 watt sound system
