The Reinvention of the Drive-In?

I have a piece in Variety on MobMov, a new organization I've been hearing a lot about. Here's the opening:

The inventor of the drive-in, Richard Hollingshead Jr., has been dead for three decades and is mostly forgotten. Bryan Kennedy, a 27-year-old Web designer, has never been to a drive-in. But with an online initiative called MobMov, the San Franciscan is reinventing the ozoner for the YouTube generation.

MobMov.com -- MobMov is short for "mobile movie" -- serves as a kind of digital clubhouse for about 160 "chapters" around the world, from L.A. to Hyderabad, India, that organize impromptu outdoor screenings. Projection booths usually consists of an LCD projector perched atop a car, a DVD player and an FM radio transmitter for the soundtrack.

But in a fresh twist on this old-fashioned exhibition form, two independent filmmakers have given MobMov chapters the right to screen their latest movies for free, in hopes of building buzz and spurring DVD sales.

(One fix to the story: Lance Weiler's "Head Trauma" is actually screening next Saturday, October 20th.)

In New York? Two Great Shows That Taste Great Together

If you're in the Greater New York area, filmmaker Lance Weiler is organizing a very special showing of his latest movie, 'Head Trauma,' complete with a DJ providing a live soundtrack -- and live performers in the audience. Plus, you're encouraged to use your cell phone -- which Lance incorporates in the story as a cinematic gaming device. It happens on Saturday, July 14th.

Is Lance gunning to be the new William Castle?

And the Museum of the Moving Image is also doing a preview screening of 'In the Shadow of the Moon,' in Manhattan on July 19th. Great documentary by British director David Sington, who'll be there in person.