Technical problems at a number of Bermuda International Film Festival screenings have left theatre-goers and filmmakers irritated and disappointed.

Screenings of 'Daughter of Danang' were interrupted and even halted this week after the visiting filmmakers realised the frame ratio they'd shot their film in could not be accommodated by local theatres.

And the picture was so distorted at a screening of 'South West 9' that filmmaker Richard Parry had to take a question from the audience about why all the people in his film were short and fat.

"I thought the man who asked was insane but then I found out what had happened," Mr. Parry said.

At the opening of 'Daughter of Danang' at Little Theatre on Saturday night filmmakers Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco were faced with the decision of losing the subtitles to their film or the tops of everyone's heads.

The filmmakers managed to work with the projectionist to allow the film to be viewed to completion but had trouble again at the second screening.

At Liberty Theatre, the film was halted completely for a period.

Yesterday, BIFF director Aideen Ratteray-Pryse said 'Daughter of Danang' needed to ride the screen in order to make sure its subtitles fit which required some fiddling at the theatre.

But viewer Suzanne Mayall said the problems with the film's screening were more extensive.

"The short that preceded it was shown without any sound and then 'Daughter from Danang' started without sound too," Ms Mayall said.

The filmmakers stopped the film and told the audience it would not start again unless the sound was fixed.

"There was a delay and then it started again but it was stopped again half way and we missed part of the film," said Ms Mayall.

Having attended a screening of 'Reinventing Eddie' the previous evening which was aborted due to problems, Ms Mayall said she was concerned she was not going to get to see any films at all.

'Reinventing Eddie' had to be sent to New York for reformatting and was re-screened Tuesday night for frustrated ticketholders.

BIFF organisers stressed yesterday however that sometimes things do go wrong at festivals.

"One thing people need to understand is many of these films have been through thousands of screenings before coming here," Ms Ratteray-Pryse said. "Some of the films are in good shape but some are not. It's a film industry problem not a film festival problem."

But 'South West 9' director Mr. Parry said the only other place where there were problems screening his film was in Macedonia.

"There were problems with the sound in Macedonia, but, that's a really poor country in a war zone."

He told The Royal Gazette another filmmaker had noticed the problems with his film on Monday night and went to the projectionist to sort it out.

"If I'd been there I would have been the first one in there lynching the projectionist," he said.

Another film which experienced technical frustrations was Bermudian Lucinda Spurling's documentary short 'The Light that Followed' which she made while studying at Bristol University.

"It played with lines running across the screen and the sound basically made everyone sound like chipmunks," she told The Royal Gazette.

"I'm still not exactly sure what the problem was but I hope to have it fixed for Thursday's (tonight's) screening."

BIFF organisers said some problems have arisen with films which were submitted in the wrong format for local screening.

"We required one format but received films in another," Ms Ratteray-Pryse said.

She explained that while North America and Bermuda use a PAL video format much of the world and Britain uses a video format called NTSC.

As a result, a number of the British films shown at the festival have faced complications.

"It was disappointing," said budding filmmaker Ms Spurling of her hometown debut. "At least everyone got the content."

She told The Royal Gazette that projection issues always tend to be complicated at festivals though and, as a result, most of the big festivals use the same, expensive, projectionists who are flown from location to location.

"I understand that's not the case here and things do get expensive," Ms Spurling said. "And I know that sometimes things go wrong so I wasn't that upset."