Cinéma Revival: save the last independant associative cinema in Paris
After three and a half years of struggle, we are (almost) buying La Clef, the last associative cinema in Paris, to make it a common good!
Following the signing of the preliminary sales agreement on Wednesday 26 April 2023, we have six months to raise all the funds. Today, we only need 20% of the sale price to finally make this project a reality!
Opened in 1973, La Clef is a historic cinema in the Quartier Latin of Paris, renowned for its singular programming that honours rare films and lesser-represented cinematographies.
The cinema closed in April 2018 because the owner of the building, the Comité Social et Économique of the Caisse d’épargne Ile-de-France bank (CSE), wanted to sell it. In September 2019, a collective decided to occupy the cinema and to restart its activity in order to preserve its function and its associative management. Every evening, the collective proposes an exceptional screening: heritage nuggets or works by young filmmakers, always offered at free price and most often accompanied by the filmmakers or members of the team.
This “permanent festival“, which defends films that are not very visible in traditional circuits, is enthusiastically supported by the public but also by cinema professionals and institutions.
Buying La Clef to make it a common good
In 2020, when the Groupe SOS, a giant in the non-profit sector, known for its predatory methods, threatened to buy the building. The collective created the Cinéma Revival endowment fund to buy the cinema and remove it from the real estate speculation market.
A first victory was achieved on 1 March 2022 when the SOS Group withdrew its offer to the owner. Since then, we have been the only buyer!
In early 2023, after several months of negotiations and fundraising, we agreed with the owner for a buyout at 2.9 million € – as opposed to the 4.2 million € initially requested!
On 26 April 2023, we signed a provisional sale agreement with the CSE: we have six months to collect the remaining 20% and get the keys back. The countdown is on!
Why raise funds?
Buying La Clef with the Cinéma Revival endowment fund means freeing the cinema from the pressure of the property market, which weakens cultural venues and threatens their independence.
In opposition to the commercial logic inflicted on cultural venues, we defend the associative and participative management of the cinema as well as free access. Its spaces will be dedicated to collective use: independent programming, image education workshops for children and creative residencies.
With your donation, you participate in the safeguarding of an independent and free broadcasting space, managed in an associative and horizontal manner and open to all. The money collected by the endowment fund will be used to purchase the walls of this emblematic building. Thanks to the collective purchase, La Clef will be the first common property in Paris!
The citizens’ campaign: the last straight line!
The signing of this project would not have been possible without the strength that your donations have brought to the collective. These thousands of donations behind which are our spectators, our supporters, in Paris and elsewhere, have shown the viability of our project.
The signing of this project would not have been possible without the strength that your donations have brought to the collective. These thousands of donations behind which are our spectators, our supporters, in Paris and elsewhere, have shown the viability of our project.
All together, we did it: we signed the sales agreement!
As of this signature, on 26 April 2023, we have six months to raise the remaining amount.
It is now a race against time. Every donation counts. For this new crowdfunding campaign, we still need to raise €200,000.
Using this participatory common financing, the goal is reached more quickly, while limiting recourse to the banking system and debt.
Now more than ever, we need you!
The steps and objectives of the campaign today :
Since the creation of the endowment fund in September 2020, we have organised several donation campaigns. Our next target is set at €400,000.
On the form below, you can click on the british flag for English language. And to make a donation from abroad, the system allows the followign card types: CB, Maestro, Mastercard, Visa or Visa Electron and it uses the 3DSecure validating system.
Otherwise, you can email us at contact@cinemarevival.fr so we can send you the bank account details for money transfer.
If this option doesn’t work in english (unable to embed a page for security reasons), please visit the HelloAsso page on the following link. Thank you!
They support us:
Jean-Luc Godard, Catherine Breillat, Luc Moullet, Alain Cavalier, Cédric Klapisch, Noémie Lvovsky, Michel Hazanavicius, Olivier Assayas, Lucas Belvaux, Laurent Cantet, Claire Denis, Bertrand Bonello, Claire Simon, Jean-Charles Hue, Jean-Louis Comolli, Benoît Delepine, Mati Diop, Jean-Michel Frodon, Nicole Brenez, Tony Gatlif, Alain Gomis, Yann Gonzalez, Agnès Jaoui, Gustave Kerven, Léa Fehner, Marie Losier, Vincent Macaigne, Jean-Bernard Marlin, Thierry de Peretti, Caroline Champetier, la SRF, le GREC, l’AFC, les Monteurs Associés, Festival Cinéma du Réel, Etats généraux du documentaire, Festival du Film de Fesses, Festival des cinémas différents et expérientaux de Paris, L’Abominable, Kino-Climates, Cinéma Nova à Bruxelles, Videodrome 2 à Marseille, l’Etna, ISKRA…