On Monday morning, two construction trucks rolled into downtown carrying a crane and three blocks of metal and plexi. As they stopped in front of their destination, I walked from my apartment a few doors down and looked up at the Robinson Film Center – a place that is near and dear to my heart since before it opened in 2008. It’s a dreary day and a light mist falls from the sky, but it’s a day that’s been in the works for over two years, one that will change the face of the Shreveport’s art house cinema forever.
The crew swung an extendable arm out over the sidewalk and up toward a 50-character, lighted marquee which hangs beneath the balcony of Abby Singer’s Bistro. This marquee has given a lot to our community. It has announced the arrival of countless independent, foreign, classic, and local films which would play on the best screens Northwest Louisiana has to offer. It has welcomed tens of thousands of moviegoers, students, and foodies, into the loving arms of art house cinema.
Today, after eight years of service, it is being retired and is being replaced with a new marquee. A bigger, brighter one.
“We have been talking about it for two years,” said Robinson Film Center’s executive director Alex Kent. “It’s a beautiful building, and we really wanted to give it more curb appeal, more of a signature look from the street side.”
The new marquee is bigger and faces outward toward the street – within the line of sight of cars traveling on Texas Street as well as people shopping at Vagabond Showroom, attending an event at Salon, walking out of Southern University, eating at Parish Taceaux (opening very soon), or sipping coffee at Rhino’s future downtown location.
“We are an entertainment destination. Movie theaters need marquees. This was an opportunity to make us more visible. We hope it becomes a symbol for downtown growth and downtown arts,” Kent remarked.
As a premiere destination, RFC needs something great to announce the amazing programs, and though new technologies are available, such as LCD screens and digital marquee boards, but Alex says the staff at the Robinson opted for something more classy.
“There are plenty of beautiful digital signs available, but that’s not us. It’s not downtown. We wanted to stay with manual, tangible letters. There is something about seeing the letters going up. Old marquees have an emotional quality about them. It’s kind of romantic.”
But with that romantic atmosphere, they wont be giving up state-of-the-art status. With the help of electrical contracting company near me the signs will be illuminated with energy-efficient and long-lasting LEDs which will save electricity costs. This merging of old and new is indicative of this project as Alex described.
“We worked with Kevin Bryan Architect, an architecture firm that has a history of working with the older architecture downtown. They’ve worked on the Strand, they’ve worked on the new Downtown Development Authority building,” Alex recalled.
“Even though we’ve only been here for eight years, this building is over 90 years old. We took a lot of care to make sure that we’re not erasing history old or new, but we’re augmenting. His team did a really wonderful job, and I think it will be a wonderful statement.”
A remarkable 274 people contributed to the project from $10 to $10,000 through Community Foundation’s annual Give for Good event. Then, follow-up screenings of Shape of Shreveport last summer raised additional dollars through the donation of all proceeds to the marquee fund.
In 2014, the Robinson Film Center used the local fundraising effort Give For Good to raise money to replace its seats, which had been worn out with so much use. That upgrade that cost a cool $45,000 but breezed past that goal, raising over $48,000 from one day of online giving. Now that the marquee is installed and new seats are broken in, Alex says its time for the Robinson to give back to its faithful audience.
“In March we are giving movies away for free. Downtown Development Authority and Downtown Shreveport Development Corporation are giving us a whopper of a grant which will fund movies for an entire month. Anyone who wants to come can come for free.”
Yes, that’s right. Free movies at the RFC through all of March. So if you have that friend who has just never made it down (after 8 years), it’s time to go down, have dinner, and catch an amazing flick. The lineup for March is pretty spectacular itself – starting with classics Easy Rider, Godfather and Godfather II then moving to new films like Oscar-nominated Son of Saul and I Saw the Light, then ending with Grease and the kung fu classic Enter the Dragon. In all, almost 20 different titles will screen during the free period, meaning there’s no reason you can’t go.
The new marquee isn’t quite lit up yet, but stay tuned on the Robinson Film Center page on Facebook for details about when you can catch the new signage in action.
