As the major Hollywood studios bicker with theater owners over who should pay for the digital equipment that allows films to remain free of dirt and scratches no matter how many times they are viewed, a luxury carmaker and the world's largest software company have stepped into the breach, casting themselves as the unlikely champions of independent digital cinema.
BMW and Microsoft are spending several million dollars to exhibit eight independent films in digital format over the next year at theaters in 25 cities. The first is "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," a documentary about the Funk Brothers, studio musicians whose role in creating the Motown sound made famous by vocalists such as Marvin Gaye and the Supremes is little known.
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