“Texas Cinema Reborn Through Crowdfunding: Overcoming Obstacles to Revitalize a Cultural Space”

The disappearance in recent years of many movie theaters and theaters in the city has made people react. The ‘crowdfunding’ set up by the new managers of the Texas cinema is exceeding all expectations and, if it continues like this, it will reach the goal of raising the 195,000 euros to reform the premises.

The two cinemas must be unified to create a stage with the public in two bands for 200 people. To do this you have to level the room first, build the stands and dressing rooms. After far exceeding the first phase of collection where 100,000 euros have already been obtained from donations, if the financial enthusiasm is maintained, it will be feasible to reach 95,000 euros before the summer, which will allow better quality works to be carried out. Not bad considering that the remodeling and start-up costs exceed half a million euros (€546,966).

permissions

The film producer Isona Passola (‘Pa negre’) and the theater producer Anna Rosa Cisquella, from Dagoll Dagom, that manages the Poliorama with Tresxtres, they want to start the works. “We only need permission from the Gràcia City Council,” they say. They plan to open the Texas next October as a diverse space with a bar, two movie theaters and a theater.

“We have surrounded ourselves with young and energetic people”, say these veterans of the cultural sector, who have embarked on this adventure with younger people: Sem Pons, Rubén García, Andreu Rami y Racing White, from BARC; members of the Flyhard Room as Sergio Matamala, Clara Coles, Elisenda Riera. Natalia Obiols close associate of Cisquella and Joan Weaverresponsible for the business plan and son of Passola and the late poet Jordi Teixidor, complete the team.

Everyone agrees that the new Texas will only work if it manages to excite. That is why they value so much the fantastic response to ‘crowdfunding’ through the web www.espaitexas.cat with donations from 10 euros.

“Crowdfunding works in a brutal way,” says Passola. More than 1,400 people have so far financed part of the project and most are not from the neighborhood. “There are people from all over the place,” say the new managers. One of the things that has been most successful is the sale of excess seats from the rooms that will be converted into a theater space. “The cinema seats are too big. Of the 231 we offer, there are none left. What we have is people on the waiting list,” explains Rami.

Almost all of its buyers have a history that ties them to Texas. When the blind is open, several people come to look around. “There is a lot of interest. Every day people come and ask.” Some, allergic to online payment, take the opportunity to make their donation in an envelope. “I used to come here when I was a student,” recalls Maria, a woman from the Passola and Cisquella estate who came by last Monday to pick up two seats. She plans to install them in a rural house near Mollerussa “to comfortably watch TV” and, incidentally, relive her youthful stage. “In my student days, we used to come here a lot for double sessions. When we wanted more serious cinema we went to Publi,” she says.

love in the texas

Related news

El Texas, a place with 111 years of history what closed in March 2020, it is full of memories for many. For example, that of a couple of women who had their first date there. Two years later one of them chose that same cinema to declare herself. “I asked that they reserve the room for me for a little while and I showed her a video where she at the end asked for her hand,” Gemma explained while her nine-month-old baby looked at her attentively. “Of course, we will continue to come when it reopens,” she says. “You have to protect the art and take care of the premises with soul”. And meanwhile at home they will enjoy two comfortable armchairs in an intense red color that they will place in the hall. “We will place a light nearby and they will serve to read.”

It is not the same to pay 70 euros for a seat to disburse 450 euros for a plate on a seat with someone’s name. This is another type of ‘crowfunding’ that, however, also has its followers. Some, like the friends of the long-awaited filmmaker Agustí Villaronga, who passed away on January 22, have come together to always keep him in Texas. But not everything will be famous names: a movie buff dad has already reserved a seat for him with his future offspring’s name to convey his love for the seventh art. Texas continues to generate stories.