Technical problems suffered by the Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF) on the final day of screening last week were not serious, director Aideen Ratteray-Pryse said yesterday.

The Thursday screening of the Japanese film 'An Adolescent' was temporarily interrupted, she said, but the problem stemmed from the print of the film being screened and not the projector, she said.

Countering rumours that the film had melted and would require a costly rescue mission at the festival's expense, Ms Ratteray-Pryse said, "when we got the film there were a few rough areas with the sprockets".

Ms Ratteray-Pryse said the projector at the Little Theatre is programmed to stop running when it encounters a problem with the film.

Sometimes film will stick together due to Bermuda's high humidity, she added.

"The film hit a sticky patch and it stopped," Ms Ratteray-Pryse said. "There was nothing wrong with the projector and nothing that the projectionist could have done about it."

The screening was stopped and the film was then hand-threaded through the projector and the screening completed.

The print also emerged undamaged, she said.

Last week The Royal Gazette was told that film festivals worldwide commonly experience technical problems.

Festivals receive prints from around the world which have often been screened extensively at other festivals and the quality of the print can vary, Ms Ratteray-Pryse said, following complaints that technical problems marred a number of screening in the week-long event.

Yesterday, she explained that in BIFF's early years, when some of the films competing were in 16mm format, the festival would rent the equipment from New York and an overseas technician would bring it to Bermuda.

In the past two years, however, BIFF has not shown films in the 16mm format and screens from vidseo tapes instead, eliminating the need to rent equipment.

Ms Ratteray-Pryse said there was no need to bring in overseas projectionists as local people are completely competent to do the job.