About Us

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LA CLEF

An associative and independant cinema in Paris

2022

Our Mission

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2018

Closing by CSECEIDF

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1973

Why Us?

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1973

«[After its owner (a French bank, la Caisse d’Épargne) decided to sell it in 2018, La Clef (a historical movie theater inaugurated in 1973 in Paris’ Latin Quarter)] lay closed for little over a year, until September 2019 – when a group of filmmakers and cinephiles decided to illegally occupy the cinema and reopen it, with one clear goal in mind : to save Paris’ last associative cinema. Alongside organizing daily screenings in the evening, which could be attended at free price, the collective also launched a multi-disciplinary cultural platform, which included a weekly fanzine, podcasts, creative workshops and roundtables. Their terms to end the occupation? Getting a written declaration from the owners, in the presence of the press and of legal witnesses, that the hall will never change its designation as an independent and associative cinema.

The collective’s strategy of obtaining films in the context of an unfinanced occupation was as simple as it was efficient : they obtained films managed by independent filmmakers and distributors, who offered them their titles free of charge. And the selection of the titles themselves was composed of rare, experimental, or political films a context that, at the same time, was prime for an eclectic artistic direction, unlike that of any other Parisian cinema.

The names that rallied to the support of the cinema, in various capacities, are absolutely stunning : amongst them Jean-Luc Godard, Claire Denis, Catherine Breillat, Olivier Assayas, Claire Simon, Mati Diop, Luc Moullet, Michel Hazanavicius, Laurent Cantet, Nicole Brenez, and Yann Gonzalez, along with entities such as the Paris Town Hall (which, at one point, offered to buy the building that housed the cinema), the French Society of Filmmakers, the French associations of directors of photography and editors, the Cinéma du Réel festival, and Nova (Bruxelles) and Videodrome 2 (Marsilia) cinemas.»

  • taken from «Cinéma La Clef. A pocket guide to cinematic insubordination», written
    by Flavia Dima and published on the Films in frame website on September 16th, 2021.

An association

La Clef Revival

La Clef Revival is a non-profit organization aiming to connect filmmakers and the audience, to give access to all (notably low-income populations) poorly distributed films and to give young filmmakers access to tools to self-produce their work. We also give an introduction to cinema to young children with unique workshops and screenings.

A collective programmation and an open price.

We monthly organise collective meetings to decide the daily programmation of unique events.

This is also us

The action we fostered

Studio 34

The independent and associative film laboratory settled at La Clef, fostering a residency and workshops with professionals.

‘La Petite Evasion’

Introduction to cinema ! La Petite Évasion are image education workshops with screenings for children, available freely by our volunteers !

A Fanzine

When the cinemas were closed down during the covid-19 peak we decided to give access to our audience to unique contents linked to our love for cinema. Kill the darling was born. now we’re working on the second fanzine.

CINEMA REVIVAL

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