6 Year Anniversary for Dallas Movie Screenings!

I moved to Dallas in 2003 when I noticed movie pass pick ups in the Dallas Observer. They had these in the Boston free paper from where I just moved from but they were always too far away usually in Cambridge. Dallas is unique in that there are plenty of theaters spaced around the metroplex. After awhile I began to notice the same people standing in the lines to pick up the passes. I heard that there was someone named Jeff Baker with the melodious voice that let people know about other pass opportunities. “Jeff's List” was the in-crowd for the screenings. When he stopped sending emails I would see people at pickups going “where's Jeff?” and I realized there was a need that could be organized so we could help each other out.

On May 5, 2005 the Dallas Movie Pre-Screening group was formed. I printed out little pieces of paper with the address on it and handed them out in the line for X-Men:Wolverine pass pick up at Standard and Pours at South Side Lamar. (There were having a contest for a trip to Wolverine's home in Alberta, Canada which unbelievably my daughter Kira won!) We got 30 members signing up on that first day of the group. A few weeks later I ran into Jeff at the Inwood Theater and told him about the formation of the Yahoo Group. He sent me the addresses from his list and we were up and running. It was doing well for awhile but we were getting hit daily with spammers and group members were getting out of hand. We had over 1300 members then and it was giving me a headache. Many people who had been going to these advance screenings for years were upset over the crowds. The dire economy was making free movies more attractive. The amount of people attending and the people in charge of the running the screenings were colliding. It was becoming an unruly mess.

On May 28, 2009 the group was shut down and the Dallas Movie Screenings group rose like a phoenix from the ashes. Created as a private group, we have gotten rid of the spammers. We have 1338 subscribers as of today. The rules we have put in place have made running this community of free movie goers more manageable but there are still a few who don't follow the simple rules hence the weekly rants.

Finding passes have become easier than the weekly scavenger hunts of the past. We have some wonderful local movie websites, radio stations, and movie theater newsletters offering epasses as well as the occasional pass pickup. We encourage you to frequent their pages because the more traffic they get the more screenings they will be able to offer us. Remember free screenings are gift and a privilege. Lets help each other out so we can enjoy it for many years to come. The group gives us a place where we can exchange passes when we didn't win one or won't be able to use one. The group gives us a sense of community and not the ramble that used to frequent the screenings. Y'all remember some of the craziness that used to go on right?

In December 2009 the DallasMovieScreenings.com was born. It's a place where information on movie events, festivals, movie news, interviews and reviews can be shared. Your visits, comments and feedback on this website is important to making us more visible instead of us just being known as the “line people”. Please add this page to your bookmarks and drop by daily. Also bookmark the Yahoo Group page and check the calendar daily for the movies that are scheduled. Read the archived messages if you missed a notice of a screening opportunity. Check out the links section to sign up for all the newsletter and radio points.

Our distinctive logo was created by artist Steve Cruz at Might Fine Arts Gallery. http://www.mfagallery.com

So Happy Anniversary to us! The movies are free and you get to see it before anyone else. You only have to pay with the time you spend waiting. The waiting is made easier by the great friendships formed and the interesting conversation shared. A big thank you to y'all for making this group such a success!

Reesa
Owner/Moderator
Dallas Movie Screenings