Protestors Fight To Keep Tower Theater In MDC’s Hands: ‘This Isn’t The End’
Tears welled in Manny Soto’s eyes as he recalled childhood moments spent at Tower Theater.
After arriving from Santiago de Cuba in 1962, the then five-year-old frequented the Little Havana art house with his family. They didn’t have a lot of money but sacrificed, shelling out 15 cents a ticket to watch movies twice a month.
Their first film—the 1939 classic, Gone with the Wind.
“It was a safe haven,” said Soto, who received a Documentary Achievement Award for his movie, A New Dawn, during last year’s Miami Film Festival Audience Awards.
On Oct. 4, the veteran screenwriter was one of the dozens of protesters in front of Tower Theater holding handmade signs and chanting “save the theater.”
The backlash comes two weeks after the City of Miami informed Miami Dade College, who has managed the facility for the past two decades, that it was ending its property leasing agreement with the school.
The decision is effective Jan. 2, 2023.
“We thank you for your services in managing the Property for the past few years,” said the signed letter from Jacqueline Lorenzo, the city’s interim director of Real Estate & Asset Management.
According to a College official, the news comes as a surprise. They had been negotiating with the city for the past 20 months to renew the lease.
Trouble started percolating three days before the notice was sent to MDC when city commissioner Joe Carollo sponsored a measure to have Tower Theater run by the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association, Brigade 2506. But when the group said they had no interest in overseeing the property, the plan was nixed, according to Miami New Times.
“It’s never about the preservation of culture or history or cinema,” said Miami filmmaker Billy Corben, who is known for the documentary, Cocaine Cowboys. “Miami Dade College is the collateral damage to the acts of a wannabe tin-pot dictator.”
Corben’s outrage is echoed by local filmmakers like Chris Molina, who serves as the interim Short Films Programmer at the Miami Film Festival.
He created a petition on change.org to reverse the decision. More than 6,000 people have signed it since Sept. 27.
“It’s one of the few historic cinemas in the city,” said Molina, who led chants at the protest using a makeshift megaphone created from what appeared to be a poster board. “This isn’t the end of us fighting to keep the Tower under Miami Dade College.”
For many directors like Jonathan Cuartas, the Tower Theater holds a special place in their hearts.
A decade after his first trip to the theater, Cuartas premiered his debut film, My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To, at the cinema last June.
“It came full circle when me and my brother played our own films there,” said Cuartas, who graduated from the School of Entertainment & Design Technology. “It was just a wonderful way to come back.”
College officials said the school has invested more than $1 million in renovations to the property since 2002. They include a digital marquee, laser projectors and new screens, seats and flooring. More than 45,000 people visit the Tower Theater every year.
The cultural landmark sits in the heart of Calle Ocho, nestled next to Domino Park, the Azucar Ice Cream store and the Ball & Chain nightclub.
“It’s a beautiful venue,” said Rene Rodriguez, who served as a movie critic at the Miami Herald for two decades and now manages the Bill Cosford Cinema at the University of Miami. “It’s a critical element of our cultural fabric.”
Tower Theater opened in December of 1926 in Shenandoah—a thriving Jewish neighborhood that later became Little Havana.
At the time, an undeveloped Miami was recovering from the catastrophic aftermath of the Great Miami Hurricane, which wreaked havoc on the city three months prior. But after the Tower Theater was bought by a local media company in 1931, the cinema thrived.
“It was a theater for enjoyment in an area where no other theaters were nearby,” said Paul George, a retired MDC history professor who now serves as a resident historian at HistoryMiami Museum. “It was just magnificent.”
By the 1960s, the theater had adapted to an influx of Cuban exiles by offering Spanish subtitles and Spanish-language films. Since then, it has become a portal to American culture for newcomers.
After closing in 1984 due to urban decay, the City of Miami reopened the facility in 2000. After two underwhelming years of operation, MDC took control.
Since then, the theater has become a hub for foreign and indie films while hosting cinematographic events such as the Miami Film Festival and the Gems Film Festival.
Tickets at the venue are as cheap as $8.25 for MDC students. The intimate setting features two auditoriums, one with 250 seats and another with 104.
Currently, they are screening Moonage Daydream, a documentary about music legend David Bowie, Argentina, 1985, a drama about a young prosecution team that seeks justice against its country’s military junta, and The Good Boss, a comedy about a Spanish industrial scale company that awaits a visit from a committee that holds its fate in its hands.
Until MDC’s lease of Tower Theater ends, the College will continue hosting its regular programming, including the GEMS Film Festival set to take place from Nov. 3 to Nov. 10.
“People just really feel like this is their second home,” said Nicolas Calzada, who oversees the Tower Theater for the College. “We are the leading art house cinema in Miami, and if that goes away it’s a huge loss for the community.”
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