Maria Rovira: "My favorite place in Catalonia is not a sunny one and I don't go there as much as I would like"

The screenwriter and humorist Maria Rovira, also known as Oye Sherman, believes we should rethink tourism: “We Barcelonians who go away should think about the logic we suffer in the city all year round and ask ourselves if we are becoming gentrifying agents in other towns and cities”.Following this reflection, he chooses cinemas as his favorite place, a cool space with air conditioning and a window to the world. He suggests going to the cinemas, “perhaps this way we can manage to keep them alive until September and they don’t become a supermarket, a clothing store or an establishment without history or personality”. He recalls that in his neighborhood, more than ten years ago, the Lauren Horta cinema closed, which became a Condis.To the screenwriter, who this summer is making a series of film recommendations in Retorn al videoclub by ARA, she also likes to go to Filmoteca, Verdi cinemas and Renoir Floridablanca: “Actually I like them all. Balmes is huge, it looks like a kind of space shuttle”. She admits she is not one of those people who prefer to watch a film practically alone in the room, she prefers to experience the screening as a collective experience, beyond the people she might go with, “as long as it coincides with a civilized audience”. This special connection is usually with films shown at festivals: “It's a unique experience, which I do much less often than I'd like. Normally, premieres coincide with a time slot when I'm working, on television, or performing a gig.” Despite this, he usually checks the schedules for IN-EDIT Barcelona, D'A, or DocsBarcelona, which he particularly likes. Let's see if he can combine it to go: “This year I was at Docs, a real triumph.”For years I had gone to the cinema a lot, “it's the typical thing that I don't do as much as I would like and I intend to correct it,” she comments. She also considers the option of the cinema when she is in a city that is not her own, especially if she is doing tourism, it is summer and it is hot: “It is the perfect time to stop, rest and have an interesting experience besides the film: seeing what the cinemas are like and the people who go there is another way to get to know places”. When she manages to go to the cinema, she is one of those who buys tickets in advance, "it's already exceptional enough to venture out and have to watch it from the corner." Remembering, she recalls when she saw Mullholland drive from the side front row, a disaster. If she can choose, no morning or very late sessions, as she tends to fall asleep, and preferably in the original version, "although as a child I watched them dubbed." When she was a little girl and discovered voice actors, she was very excited to know that Pep Anton Muñoz voiced many bad Disney characters or that Ross from Friends and Timon from The Lion King were the same voice.