In March 2014, it was announced that the Carlton Group, an investment firm owning the Dobie Theatre in Austin, TX, was looking for an operator to reopen the cinema, possibly by the end of the year.

2 weeks ago,'due to a lack of propositions', a new statement was announcing that the movie theatre will finally become an office space.

The Dobie Theatre opened in the early ‘70s and closed in 2010.

For a quick trip down memory lane, Dobie became popular when the Austin Film Society started screening independent and foreign films. Linklater released his cult classic “Slacker” at Dobie in 1990. Additionally, Scott Dinger created and hosted the first Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival there in 1987, and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino first held his QT-Fest at the theatre in 1997. Wes Anderson used to work for the Dobie back when he was a student at UT.

The Dobie never was, and never could be a first-run-movies kind of theatre. But if one looks at the actual figures of theatrical distribution, in comparison with VOD figures, it does not take long to understand that it is time to reinvent the very concept of cinema anyway.

I did try and contact Campus Living Villages, which manages the Dobie Center, as well as the Carlton group in NY. Surprisingly, none of them replied to my many emails/phone calls. Maybe because of my poor skills in English (I'm French) or  maybe because my proposition somehow vanished, which is a shame because it was based on simple facts and common sense.

-the Dobie Theatre is part of the Dobie Mall, located at UT's walking distance (approx. 50000 students), right next to the Dobie Center, the number 1 University of Texas' private student residence.

-Students, as well as any other category of the US population, tend to stay home and watch films/TV shows on small devices. It's cheaper and more convenient in terms of schedules and film picks.

-Because not everyone has a top-notch sound system at home, especially when you live in a dorm, imagine the same kind of convenience, except you relocate it to where sound and projection systems are excellent, and where you keep the sharing experience (the very reason why people still go to movies nowadays), but where the audience is your chosen group of friends/classmates/community/same-interest acquaintances...

=the screening room is yours, the film is your pick, the Dobie becomes a TOD (Theater On Demand) and you can get your very own ultimate movie/TV show experience.

Dobie is originally a 4 screen theatre. One could imagine:

-2 rooms 'TOD-style': people come with their pick. No traditional seats, but sofas and couches, generating a 'giant living-room' atmosphere, with slots (and not tickets) to book and pay for. These 2 rooms can host up to 70 people.

-1 room 'traditional style', for premieres, special events/screenings (foreign, documentaries, Q&A's, anything educational oriented ), classes/conference/festivals, with traditional theater seats + 2K or 4K projector. Same slot system, approx.100 seats.

-1 room renovated as a hall/coffee shop/gathering room/on- the-side activities.

Technical facilities aside, it wouldn't cost more to renovate the Dobie as a TOD than to renovate it as an office space. In fact, it's almost the same, except you make it an exciting project (no offense to office spaces), you recycle instead of destroying and rebuilding, and you do involve Austin communities in the process (public and private schools, University, random associations, filmakers, companies, individuals...).It wouldn't compete but complete the local offer in terms of cinema programming, with a hint of DIY to it.

This petition aims to gather potential supporters/followers/partners/future customers, in Austin and more generally within the film community/industry, around the idea that each and every production, independent, foreign, classic, cult, new, old, TV, in other words, whatever your pick is, should be given the chance to be seen in the best conditions and in the best company.

It is also a way to raise awareness on what looks like, sadly, a rather dark future for a historic art house in Austin, as well as testing the actual interest for the TOD project.