-- the New College Roxie Film Center! Ending years of nail-biting and speculation, the Roxie Theater on 16th and Valencia has been saved from shuttering by its neighbors the New College.
The New College received an anonymous $200,000 donation earmarked to pay off the Roxie's debts and to turn the theater into a nonprofit. Bill Banning, who used to own the Roxie, will stay on as a film programmer, but the day-to-day operations have been turned over to new executive director Allyce Bass and the New College Media and Film Studies department chair Mary Ellen Churchill. The Roxie will continue to screen movies, but will also double as a classroom during the day, and they'll have special events there too.
The Roxie Film Center will have its grand opening on April 7. Cineaste Gavin Newsom'll be there, and issued the following statement: "As small independent theaters struggle, New College and the Roxie are keeping the spirit of independent film alive." Truly, the language of cinema -- it's universal!
The name on everybody's lips is gonna be.....