Omar Bocard lives in Villa Elisa and is known for having built his own cinema when the city ran out of cinemas. From a town in Entre Ríos to the big screen, this is a special story for a movie buff.
When Omar was 9 years old, he began to work as a newspaper delivery boy, touring the streets of Villa Elisa, which then had only 3,500 inhabitants. As he passed, posters appeared with the films that were being premiered in the city’s cinema, and he was immediately attacked by the “fever of curiosity”.
With the few coins he earned from his work, the young Omar decided to find out what the seventh art was all about and there was no turning back, the boy fell madly in love with cinema.
From that moment he did not miss any function, even with health problems, especially in winter, Omar went to the place that shook him and where he was able to share many anecdotes. He says that when he turned 18 he started driving his mother’s car, a Siam Di Tella, and it no longer froze like before when he walked.
However, in the 1980s they decided to close the cinema because there was a library there and they needed the space. “I fought for years to get it reopened. I didn’t have any support, so I woke up one morning and thought, “If the mountain doesn’t come to me, I’m going to the mountain” and started building a small movie theater on top of my little house that was standing on a piece of land, which they had given me, my parents before a notary”, says Omar.
His job as a bricklayer was very useful to him, since he dedicated 168 Sundays, that is, three and a half years, to building his own cinema, which is called Cinema Paradiso. Omar began building the room in November 1996, on his days off, and finished it on June 3 with the screening of the film Alma Mía, starring Araceli González and Pablo Echarri.
When he built the cinema, Omar did not tell his wife the real reason, but he told her that he was going to build a small room to rent. Once he found out the real reason, there was no going back. The people of Villa Elisa, who found out about the work, believed that he was crazy, “his head was upside down”, or worse still: he had gone crazy.
For 10 years, the cinema worked on the top floor of his house, the main objective was to make it accessible, not only for the neighbors but especially for the children. Omar always remembers the moment in which he met the cinema and he wanted all the Guríses to know it too.
But at one point, Omar’s brothers wanted to sell their mother’s house and the advisory council wouldn’t let them share the land, so Cinema Paradiso had to be demolished. All this was recorded by Luz Ruciello, the filmmaker from Concepción del Uruguay, who made a documentary about Omar’s story.
The owner of the cinema did not want to see the demolition, which he only saw when the documentary was released, and refused to return to the place where he first realized his dream. yes, for the first time Because he would take revenge.
So Omar went back to work and built his Cinema Paradiso for the second time with serious health problems.
a special cinema
The story of Omar reached the ears of the Uruguayan filmmaker Luz Ruciello, who spent 10 years portraying the life of this very special man from Entre Ríos. The story won a Best Story contest and received support from INCAA to make it a reality.
Un Cine en Concreto was released in 2017 and received awards in many places around the world, including India and Taiwan.
However, the experience that he treasures the most was at the Lima Film Festival in Peru. “Our film opened the festival, I went to the Mar del Plata Festival and saw the red carpet and the great actors. And one day the humble bricklayer was on the red carpet of the Lima Film Festival where they gave me the flashes of the cameras and he told me? “Omar, Omar! To take my photo. We walked the red carpet, me in the middle, the film director on one side and the producer on the other. It was crazy because the mason was there. I, who was a fan of cinema and actors, seemed to occupy this place as if I was going to take it”, she says humbly.
Netflix appears on the scene
At the end of 2019, when the story of Omar was known, the giant of series and cinema on demand contacted the owner of Cinema Paradiso to preview the film Klauss in his cinema, because they felt that there was a similarity between them. character from the film and the character from Entre Ríos.
In exchange, Omar asked Netflix for a new screen, the living room rug, and an HD camera. However, the company did more: they covered up the entrance to Cinema Paradiso and paid its owner a considerable sum of money for the video filmed there with Omar as the protagonist.
That same year, Eli’s man participated in the program Who wants to be a millionaire?, a question and answer program hosted by Santiago Del Moro, where he won 130,000 pesos.
an unconditional love
Omar never lived from the cinema, it was never his goal. He worked as a bricklayer for a long time until his scoliosis prevented him from doing so. At that time, supported by the community of Villa Elisa, he opened a shoe store in the premises of his house. However, during the reign of Mauricio Macri he was forced to close.
Today, Omar lives on his and his wife’s pension, as he himself says. He says that the winter holidays were a great success as far as movies are concerned. Cinema Paradiso has a regular clientele who even have their seats reserved in advance, as confirmed by this author, who had the pleasure of enjoying a film in this magical space. Regular shows are Fridays at 6 pm for children and Saturdays at 8:30 pm for adults.
Omar currently has an HD camcorder for sale because he needs to change the lamp on one of his projectors and he doesn’t have enough money. Those interested can contact him at 3442 52-0748.
Omar’s story is that of a dreamer who does it, because we all have the ability to dream, but do we all have the courage to make it come true? The advice of this man from Entre Ríos, who has lived life like a movie, is to do things and not stick to “I want and I want them”.
“You have to start with that and tell the community what you’re doing, because if you’re someone of your word, you’re going to do it. I tell young people not to give up, to start. No beginning, no end, no realization. There is nothing else to start with.”
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