The exterior of O Cinema, via facebook.com/pages/O-Cinema/143935142284243

The film scene in Miami is a bit of a drag lately, but that, like so many other things here, seems to be changing — if slowly. Last month, I posted about the totally homegrown Borscht Film Festival, which has proven a booster for locally authored film and music. Now, there might be a place to actually watch it.

There have been few places to see independent movies; in fact, there has been no full-time independent movie theater for several years. The Bill Cosford Cinema at the University of Miami has always continued a program of showing independent and foreign movies, but it only has a couple of screenings a night, and not every day of the week. The Miami Beach Cinematheque, meanwhile, puts on great one-off programs and does some in-house screenings. But it’s moved from an independent location to one inside the Miami Beach City Hall building, and, as such, its showings have been curtailed.

Now, though, I’m eager for the forthcoming arrival of O Cinema, a new venue set to open in the Wynwood arts/warehouse district on the mainland. It’s funded in part by a Knight Arts Grant, and it’s meant to have 130 seats and show first-run independent movies Thursday through Sunday. What’s more, it will become the first movie theater in the sprawling Biscayne Corridor area; gentrifiers have had to go back to Miami Beach or to suburbs north and south for a flick fix. Theater founders also say the place will host a video art lounge, keeping with the spirit of the neighborhood. Fingers crossed that Miami will finally be able to sustain such a place. Updates are on the O Cinema Facebook page.