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Logline

La Clef Revival is a collective of activists, filmmakers and artists who have been fighting for the past 5 years to save a landmark, community-run cinema in the heart of Paris: La Clef.

Synopsis

La Clef is an iconic movie theater that opened in 1973 in Paris’ Latin Quarter. When it was put up for sale and at risk of closing in 2019, a collective of movie lovers organized to occupy the movie theater and keep the projectors on. Over the course of hundreds of screenings, the fight to save La Clef grew into a bigger movement that brought together audiences of thousands and artists including Martin Scorsese, Jean-Luc Godard, David Lynch, Justine Triet, Céline Sciamma, John Carpenter, and Payal Kapadia, among many others. With all of their help and after five years of hard work and countless twists and turns, our collective successfully gathered the funds we needed to buy the movie theater and keep it from disappearing.

In June 2024, our nonprofit Cinema Revival became the owner of La Clef. Our mission is to keep this theater running sustainably, true to our values: community-run, bold participatory programming, and a pay-what-you-can ticket pricing. But before we can reopen the theater we need to renovate it, and to do that, we need your help!

We need to find $400,000 before April 2025 to fund the renovation work and to finally welcome the public back to La Clef! We are looking for dedicated patrons who share our conviction that the collective experience of movie-going needs community theaters like ours, and want to support our grassroots initiative.
 

Cinema Revival Board Members

Eric Arrivé – “Commons” Expert
Eric is a researcher and an expert in the legal arrangements that enable common property. This is a crucial parameter of the project to take over La Clef: the goal is not simply to buy the cinema, but to protect it durably from real es- tate speculation and to entrust its management to a cooperative of users, who will administer it with complete independence.

Céline Sciamma – French Screenwriter/Director
Céline’s debut feature film was Water Lilies, back in 2008 ; she is best known for Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), which won Best Screenplay at the Cannes and European Film Festivals. Her experience as an independent writer and director, and her knowledge of alternative production methods will provide valuable support for the development of artistic residencies at La Clef.

Laurent Tenzer – Member of Cinema Nova (Brussels)
Laurent has been involved in the running of Cinema Nova in Brussels since its inception. This emblematic cinema in the heart of Brussels is dedicated to programming independent films and videos and has been run for twenty years by a team of volunteers. It is a model of alternative cinema management in Europe, which has inspired the project to take over La Clef.

Jean-Marc Zekri – Operator of Reflet Médicis (Paris)
Jean-Marc runs the Reflet Médicis, a historic Arthouse cinema in the Latin Quarter, renowned for its cutting-edge programming of heritage films and recent independent films. Reflet Médicis is part of the network of independent cinemas in Paris : Jean-Marc Zekri has in-depth knowledge of the public sup- port model for such venues.

BILLET Victor, co-founder and film producer at SMAC productions collec- tive
BLOT Claire-Emmanuelle, film programmer – most notably at the Entre- vues Festival in Belfort – and member of the Directors’ Fortnight press relations team
FOLENS Chloé, PhD candidate in film history and deputy delegate of the French Directors’ Guild (SRF)
MEIGNAN Bulle, video artist and film programmer
RAGUENES Gautier, film producer at Les films Hatari
PAILLARD Luc, projectionist and cinema employee

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.