a year's worth of starlite

next month will mark a year that we have been recapturing that drive-in feeling by turning backyards in austin into outdoor theaters once a month for our starlite cinema series.

we tested out the idea back in may of last year with the fine folks of the annie street arts collective and did a number of shows there before moving to our new home at the smith residence, newly re-christened as the crestland arcadium. with every screening, things just seem to get better. for instance:

that's right. for our screening of a taxing woman (1987) tonight there was grilled sweet corn and lauren spent all day baking some incredible challah bread. this is the kind of thing you miss out on when you skip starlite cinema. you have also missed a lot of fine film. here's a rundown of what we have shown this past year:

forbidden passage (1941)
a gun in his hand (1945)
detour (1945)
off the charts: the song-poem story (2003)
monster road (2004)
alma (2009)
simon of the desert (1965)
spirit of the beehive (1973)
the amazing screw-on head (2006)
the mysterious geographic explorations of jasper morello (2005)
journey to the center of the earth (1959)
swing you sinners! (1930)
the legend of hell house (1973)
troll 2 (1990)
a charlie brown thanksgiving (1973)
big night (1996)
sherlock jr. (1924)
metropolis (1927)
the lost thing (2010)
madagascar, a journey diary (2010)
logorama (2009)
mst3k: what to do on a date (1950)
gregory's girl (1981)
beauty and the beast (1946)
master of the flying guillotine (1977)
iron monkey (1993)
a taxing woman (1987)

and due to time constraints we twice had to cut films this year. my apologies to misterios de ultratumba (1959) and the adventures of robin hood (1938).

so in the span of a year we have visited spain, australia, the UK, germany, africa, france, china and japan. we have seen some silent classics, old favorites, perplexing documentaries, badass kung fu, dark proto-noir and groundbreaking animation. in the year to come, we look forward to bringing you more variety and hope to introduce you to exciting, challenging and fun films, both new and old. we are kicking our second year off in epic fashion with akira kurosawa's landmark, seven samurai (1954)!

we are devoting the entire evening to the emperor's masterpiece so make sure you clear your calendar on saturday, 5.28.11 and join us at 8 p.m. for kurosawa and starlite birthday cake. here is the event page for those of you that are on the facebook. the rest of you can get in touch with me if you would like further details. let's get year two off to a great start. hope to see you there.