Outdoor-movie organizer hopes to create community

Huanghe Yang (left), his wife, Yi Zheng, and daughter Olivia Yang, 15 months, watch the free screening of “Meet Me in St. Louis” at Four Corners Park in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood.

By Diane Toroian Keaggy
08/24/2008

"Superbad": raunchy sex comedy or agent of world peace?

Martin Casas says both.

Casas is the founder of Frontyard Features, which screens free flicks in neighborhood parks, tennis courts and football fields across the state. In the next two months, he will project "Juno," "Dumbo," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Harry Potter," "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Psycho" and other top titles onto an inflatable movie screen that is 20 feet high and 18 feet wide.

"All of this fits into my Camry," said Casas, pointing to the screen, the sound board and the speakers. "Maybe I should have bought a truck."

Frontyard Features was born out of Casas' dual obsessions: politics and movies. Get folks together, even for a sex farce about two dudes desperate to score vodka and chicks, and good things will happen.

"My theory is that one man can't change the world, he can't change the nation, can't change the state," said Casas, 27. "But he can do a lot in his neighborhood.

"If you change your neighborhood, then you change your city, your state, your world. It's all very micro. I'm not saying my movies will change the world, but maybe they will bring a couple of neighbors together who have never met before, and they will form a connection and make something better. I'm creating hundreds of those opportunities."

If Casas sounds like a politician, it's because he's worked with them. The first was President Bill Clinton. At 19, Casas was an intern at the White House at a time when the job was more punch line than privilege.

"I worked in the greeting card and comment line office with a bunch of old ladies who dealt with everything from 'Hey I need help with Medicare' to 'Bigfoot is trying to break into my house,'" Casas said. "Then I went to White House operations. For my first job, I had to replace a lamp shade in the West Wing. It was grunt work."

Still, the experience hooked Casas on Democratic politics. He went on to rally for Rod Blagojevich, ring doorbells for Howard Dean and campaign for John Kerry. He met his wife, Kate, on the campaign trail. When she got a Teach for America job in St. Louis, the couple moved to the Shaw neighborhood. Casas is president of the Young Democrats of Greater St. Louis.

"All I knew about St. Louis was Chevy Chase drove through it very fast," Casas said, referring to the comedy classic "National Lampoon's Vacation." ("Kids, you noticing all this blight?" Chase's Clark Griswold asks during a detour to East St. Louis.) "I thought showing movies would be a great way to meet my neighbors."

In 2006, Casas screened nine family movies in Tower Grove Park near his home. He rigged a screen (two bedsheets stitched together for free by Orpheum Cleaners) to steel pipes and two 90-pound buckets of concrete donated by Hanneke Hardware. Last year, he bought real equipment and showed 40 movies.

Today, he owns four inflatable screens and will have projected 200 movies by the end of October, including about 35 films in Kansas City. Casas earns his salary from ad revenue. Casas charges $50 for an ad that appears onscreen 10 times before the film starts; that's a bargain for local businesses that want to attract neighborhood patrons. He also has attracted citywide sponsors. Neighborhood organizations cover only the licensing fee for the movie of their choice.

The Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council paid about $250 to host "Meet Me in St. Louis" this month. Resident Bruce Rogers brought his family and visiting relatives. Is he a big fan of the Judy Garland vehicle?

"No, not really," Rogers said. "But any chance to get out of the house is great. Events like these are what keep a diverse neighborhood like ours strong. My wife is part of the community garden for the same reason. Yes, she likes to garden. But it's really being part the community."

Casas agrees with Rogers.

"If you want to get to the crux of all of this, it goes back to when I was 15 and my dad died," Casas said. "I grew up in the heart of (Orange County, Calif.), suburban sprawl heaven. You would drive down the street and you would never see anyone in their front yards. But the community really came together for us. You never know it's there until you need it."

It's Showtime!
Outdoor movie series lets St. Louis neighborhoods project their best.

By Joe Williams
Friday, 8/10/2007

Politicians build coalitions by kissing babies and fixing potholes. Martin
Casas is doing it by showing movies.

He detoured from a career as a campaign organizer to run Frontyard Features,
which is screening movies at outdoor venues throughout St. Louis this
summer. He calls the series of 40 free screenings "a housewarming party for
the various neighborhoods to show off what they've got."

To lure locals and potential investors alike, neighborhood associations
choose popular movies both old and new, which Casas shows on his
20-by-18-foot inflatable screen. He says the twilight screenings at parks
and pavilions have attracted 100 to 200 picnickers per night - and have
allowed him to learn more about his adopted city.

Casas, 26, is a native of Southern California. In 2005, he moved here from
Washington when his wife, Katie, got a teaching job. "All I knew about St. Louis was that they had an Arch and something called frozen custard," he says.

Settling near South Grand, he soon concluded that St. Louis was friendlier
and more affordable than the other cities where he had lived, with a spirit
of urban renewal that spoke to his political ideals.

"Cities flourish when people meet their neighbors," Casas says.
As a lifelong movie buff, he figured that free screenings under the stars
could be a focus for grass-roots activism.

Last summer he tested his theory with nine screenings in Tower Grove Park,
using a bedsheet and a store-bought projector.

This year, he and business partner Matt McKenzie invested $8,000 in an
inflatable screen, two motors to keep it inflated, a portable sound system
and an industrial-strength digital projector. Then they signed up 10
neighborhood associations to host the screenings, and advertisers to help
defray the costs.

Reflecting the tastes and interests of the host neighborhoods, the movies
have ranged from "The Tuskegee Airmen" in the Ville to "The Devil Wears
Prada" in the Central West End and a U2 concert film in Soulard.
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of windstorms that disrupted power in
the region last summer, an emergency-preparedness group, the Zombie Squad,
sponsored screenings of "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" and "Shaun of the Dead” outside the Schlafly Tap Room and Brewery.

Tonight's screening is "An American in Paris" in Lafayette Park. The series
continues every weekend through Sept. 29, when an as-yet undetermined sci-fi
flick will be shown on the lawn outside the McDonnell Planetarium in Forest
Park. (The full schedule is available at HYPERLINK "http://www.fyfstl.com"www.fyfstl.com.)

Along with a movie, audiences can get info about schools and social services
in the neighborhoods. At several screenings, sightseeing company Glide St.
Louis Tours has offered free rides on Segway scooters.

As more people have learned that the city is safe to visit at night, Casas
says, "groupies" have started following the series from one stop to the
next.

But the series has not been entirely worry free. In early summer, lingering
sunlight was a nuisance, and Casas must keep an eye on the weather. At "The
Devil Wears Prada" event, a plastic garbage bag had to be draped over a
distracting street lamp. And an accidental flick of the power switch deflated the screen in about five seconds. Yet 30 seconds later, the screen was back up, and the movie proceeded without another hitch.

Casas says the film series has become almost a full-time job, and next
summer he plans to triple his workload, with 120 screenings from St. Charles
to Southern Illinois.

"I just visited Dupo," he says. "There are all these cool new places to
see."