As with so many things in our lives, the pandemic swept away the Municipal Cinema Club of Toledo, a cultural institution that this year celebrates 40 years of life. The sessions were interrupted until this Tuesday, April 6, when at last some kind of normalcy could be resumed with the new cycle called ‘Brave’. The first movie was ‘Our Best Years’, and like the next ‘Agent Mole’, the tickets were sold out.
The spirit of the Cine Club was kept as alive as it could while it lasted. During the hardest days of confinement, films were screened and face-to-face screenings were organized on the occasion of the Social Film Festival. There were in fact two other attempts to bring this institution back, explains organizer Gabriel Castaño de la Rosa. The third time lucky. “From the first moment, the City Council wanted to launch it as soon as possible, as it was done with the Rojas Theater and the rest of the cultural activities,” he explained
But there was bad luck. The first two times he faced the increase in cases and also the storm ‘Filomena’. “It has been a success to get it out, let’s hope this is not cut with the increases in cases that seem to be happening,” he emphasizes. The return has come with fewer rooms and fewer passes. On the one hand, because the Liberbank auditorium is working on adaptations to serve the public under the conditions required by the health situation, and on the other hand, a second screening at the Teatro de Rojas is impossible, due to the decontamination that the room needs after the pass from 7:00 p.m. “It takes at least two hours between people leaving, to air and decontaminate the room. Therefore, it is unfeasible. For now,” he emphasizes.
Now tickets can only be purchased online, which has been a problem, he concedes, but they are also working on facilitating these conditions. Especially for the older public, which is also the most assiduous, in many cases. And there are people who have been part of the Cine Club’s programming since its inception, four decades ago. “We are doing tutorials so that people can buy, we are going to send a video explaining how to buy tickets. We understand that there are people who do not have the ability and that is why we want to help them adapt,” explains de la Rosa.
The first pass, “a joy”
But, insite, the future for now is electronic sales, because it is necessary to avoid “at all costs that people congregate buying tickets at the door”. On the other hand, he celebrates the success of these first two passes, in which people have been left out, although he acknowledges that it is also because the capacity has been lowered, to only 30%. In this sense, de la Rosa explains that tickets are taken out 15 days in advance, so that those who want to attend do not miss the opportunity.
And it is that the entrances are finished “without control”. “There are people who take them directly from the same room, 15 days before; you have to be quick to access them,” he explains. Despite all the setbacks, he acknowledges that the first screening was “a joy” for both the organization and the public. “You can see behind the mask the smile of the people. And in the end the Cine Club does not stop being a meeting place where people socialize. That is why it has been a joy to see people, although we have a penilla because we know that there are people who will not return after the pandemic, “recalls de la Rosa.
The challenge, he says, is to keep people coming. “That the public remains and also that it opens up to a younger one. That is our intention, that people start joining. But we are happy, it is only a pity that we cannot talk at the end. But above all, we have to continue to show that culture is safe, because we are making every effort and we want people to know it, “concludes the director of the Cine Club.
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