Ben Mozer, a Fort Collins native, is the catalyst behind The Lyric Cinema, the city's only independent movie theater. But after more than five years in business, The Lyric could soon go dark, thanks to the shift to digital film formats. Catching up to today's technology will take a lot of money. Mozer is in the middle of a campaign to raise $150,000 that, he says, is critical to keeping The Lyric alive:

Q. Let's start at the top. What spurred the idea of The Lyric?

When I was 14 my family went to Spain, where theaters with couches and beer were significantly more abundant. At the time "Pulp Fiction" was the film to see, so we went to a theater in Granada where they had a bar and couches inside the theater. As an impressionable 14 year old, sitting on a couch and drinking a beer while watching "Pulp Fiction" was a momentous occasion. Years later, after I majored in film, my back-up plan to becoming a famous director (not totally realistic in hindsight) was to open up a theater like the one in Granada (also, not a great "back-up" plan in hindsight). So we moved back from L.A. to raise our child and open the theater.

Q. What were some of the biggest challenges faced in the startup phase?