Remaking a Classic: RFC’s Annual Robbys Fundraiser Gets a Reboot

The Robbys is the Robinson Film Center’s biggest annual fundraiser. Historically, it has been a gala linked to Hollywood’s Oscar Awards ceremony. “It’s really been just a big party,” Anna Gleason, president of the board of directors for RFC, said. “In the past, it has been closely linked in timing to the Oscars. We’ve tried to keep it in a format that has an awards presentation. It’s been in a fun, aesthetic way — who’s got the best hair, who’s got the best bling. It’s a chance for everybody to have a red-carpet event and walk the red carpet like our favorite celebrities. We celebrate the theater, the accomplishments, and what’s to come.”

This year, the goal is to host a party that also showcases the impact that RFC sponsors and members have on local filmmakers and the community at large. “Every year, RFC has rolled out an amazing event for the community,” Wendell Riley, RFC’s executive director, said. “One of the things we are particularly keen on is making sure The Robbys remains relevant and impactful for our major sponsors.”

The Robinson Film Center is a nonprofit arts organization whose mission is to educate, enrich and entertain through the power of film. To that end, the revamped event will celebrate local filmmakers as well as RFC’s sponsors and supporters, Riley said.

Gleason said the logistics are still being ironed out, but the ideas include an awards ceremony for local filmmakers, showcasing local films in RFC’s two theaters, and the traditional red-carpet elements The Robbys has become known for. To that end, the organizers plan to distance the event from the Oscars.

The goal is to unite filmmakers, sponsors, members, and the community behind Shreveport’s filmmaking and film-loving community. “It’s one thing to have a room full of sponsors,” Riley said. “It’s quite another to have a room full of sponsors and filmmakers together at the same time. For a sponsor to be sitting at the same table with a filmmaker that can explain just how much filmmaking has changed the trajectory of their life, and the fact that they are practicing filmmakers in Shreveport and they make a decent living, but they could make an even better living if we continue to build that infrastructure out — that is way more impactful than one of us telling a sponsor that.”

A date for the fundraiser has not been set, but organizers are considering a time in early summer. Riley said the RFC’s 15th anniversary is a good time to refocus the event on the heart of the organization’s mission. “It’s about storytelling,” he said. “This is something nonprofits everywhere are trying to reckon with. How do you rise above the noise of everyone saying, ‘We do so much for the community, give us your money?’ Nonprofits and their supporters have been looking for new ways to spread that message. Since we work within a visual medium, what better way to do that than by telling our story through film.”