O Cinema brings art house films back to Miami

I remember in the late 1980s and into the mid '90s loving the fact that I could see an art house or foreign film at any given time. That I didn't have to wait until the Miami International Film Festival came to town to get my fix. I remember taking my husband to see "Delicatessen" in Coral Gables and what a great night that was.Sure, art houses never really went away completely but they had dwindled down to just a few, Miami Beach Cinemateque on Espanola Way and the Bill Cosford Cinema at the UM Coral GablesCampus. That has now grown to O Cinema in Wynwood, the Coral Gables Art Cinema and Miami Beach Cinemateque which is still around but in the process of moving.Hey, four art house cinemas is better than two and they're showing the types of films that serious film buffs like to gather and watch. There's a true appreciation for the craft as well as the message the film is trying to convey.I attended a panel discussion at Coral Gables Art Cinema on Pedro Almodovar's most recent film "The Skin I Live In" and the questions from the audience were downright impressive. These people knew their Almodovar and it was obvious they shared a common interest in his style of filmmaking and evolution as a director.I was also very excited to watch a great documentary "The Other F Word" at O Cinema that examined the midlife challenges of several punk rock artists grappling with fatherhood and conforming to society in order to raise their families while struggling to maintain their anarchaic ways. It was eye opening and truly relatable.Most exciting of all is that I recently realized the films I saw at The Wolfsonian during Miami Beach's Sleepless Night event in December, all filmed in Miami and produced by the Borscht Film Festival organizers, were shown at the Sundance Film Festival.Now that's what I call progress in the right direction. I hope my excitement and enthusiasm isn't short-lived and that Miami audiences truly embrace and support these cinemas to keep them around for many years.