Press release: 14th Annual Brainwash Movie Festival returns July 25-26, 2008

Bay Area’s own Drive-In/Bike-In/Walk In movie festival features original shorts from around the world

June 12, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shelby Toland, 415-273-1545

The New York Times says the Brainwash Movie Festival “pirat[es] a piece of that old Hollywood magic and challeng[es] conventions on the role of public space in the process.” (“Now Playing, a Digital Brigadoon,” 7/29/04, Chris Thompson)

“We show movies on a big sail in West Oakland,” counters festival director Shelby Toland.

The sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes wacky, but always original Brainwash Movie Festival returns in the summer of 2008 for a slightly darker, perhaps more macabre engagement than in previous years.

Attendees to the festival are encouraged to either drive, bike, walk, or take public transit to the venue — a parking lot near the West Oakland BART station — where movies are screened in traditional drive-in movie theater fashion, complete with FM transmission and a full-service concession stand.

For two nights, the fully juried festival will screen original shorts such as Heartless, Filmdog^TM, Hotel Paradiso, Mercury Men, and Amor Peligrosa, among dozens of others.

“Brainwash is always an experience worth having,” notes longtime volunteer and first-time judge Jason Gohlke. “There’s no better way to see a truly unique assemblage of short movies you might never have had the chance to see, and may never see again.”

The 2008 14th Annual Brainwash Movie Festival will be held July 25th and 26th at 9:00 p.m., at the Mandela Village Arts Center (Alliance for West Oakland Development), 1357 5th St., Oakland, California, USA.