Ahead of Wes Anderson’s Friday visit to Houston to support the historic Garden Oaks Theater, organizers released an audio interview in which filmmaker Richard Linklater urged the city to value its history instead of its long-standing “out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new” mentality.
In an interview with PaperCity in June, Linklater was outspoken about his support for preserving the theater after Arthouse Houston, formerly the Friends of the River Oaks Theatre, proposed to buy the venue, built in 1947, from the current owners, Heights Investment Fund, for $7.1 million.
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Houston filmmaker Wes Anderson to return home for Garden Oaks Theater benefit
“You learn that when the community speaks up, the economic threats are always very real, cause that’s just the way the world goes,” Linklater told PaperCity reporters in a recently shared audio interview. “But it takes a little more thoughtful, committed passion to go ‘Hey, this is our history. This almost 80-year-old theater that had a long life and has a future, if we allow it to have it, is important. That’s important to the fabric of our city. When it’s all gone, it’s not coming back.'”
The Art Deco Garden Oaks Theater, which was converted into a house of worship in later years, had been under threat of demolition after Grace Church acated the premises last year. Since then, Arthouse Houston has proposed turning the property at 3732 North Shepherd Drive into a new Arts & Film Center.
“In the long run, having a cool, old theater in the neighborhood is really better, but you have to make it work out economically,” Linklater said. “And at some point, you need a nonprofit model of people, with donations and support. But really, it’s just the community support. You need everybody to make it important to the city.”
Linklater described Houston as a “forward-thinking” city that has always been an “out with the old and in with the new” kind of city post-war.
“But Houston’s old and established enough now,” he said. “It’s not the new post-war city that it was. It should be proud of its own heritage is what I’m saying. And to see value in that history in the past.”
PaperCity and Arthouse Houston shared an audio interview with Anderson last month, in which he shared the same sentiment.
The Houston-born director is expected to come home on July 17 to introduce several short films at the Hobby Center’s Zilkha Hall as part of a fundraiser sponsored by Arthouse Houston to save the theater.
Those who want to attend still have an opportunity, with tickets priced between $345 and $1,000.
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This article originally published at Richard Linklater urges Houston to preserve Garden Oaks Theater ahead of Wes Anderson visit.