Instant Film Festival

During what's being called the "16-day sprint" between now and election day, the organizers of a new film tour hope to throw traditional film distribution out the window as they inspire citizen activism from coast to coast.

Organizers of the Films to See Before You Vote Tour have put together a bevy of this season's best political films into 25 "film-festival-in-a-box" kits, which will bring a series of acclaimed films – free of charge – to far-flung communities in key battleground states before the election.

This film tour is the result of a meeting of the minds behind the web site FilmstoSeeBeforYouVote.org, created by Hollywood-based Peter Broderick and key players from the Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues and Ideas, which, during the Republican Convention in New York City in September, showcased more than 200 events at 75 venues.

The Imagine Festival creators joined forces with Peter Broderick on his existing web site to help facilitate the curated "festival-in-a- box" distribution and to catalyze action before Nov. 2. In recent months, Broderick's site has helped to coordinate various film screenings and served as a resource for those who "want to use film to bring people together and have an impact." The site continues to provide a list and links to other political films that can be bought individually or together. "At this site, anyone can connect to the best new political films, find out if they are playing in a local theater, or order them on DVD and receive them in a few days," said Broderick.

Veteran filmmaker and curator Jim Browne, of Imagine, said the Films to See Before You Vote Tour aims to help create impromptu film festivals in theaters, college auditoriums, libraries, churches, community centers, retirement centers and private residences all across the country. The success of Internet "house parties," for films like"Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" was also inspiration for the tour, Browne said.

2004 has marked the beginning of a new era in the use of political films. More political films than ever before are being shown in theaters this year, with "Fahrenheit 9/11" leading the pack with roughly $118 million in box office sales so far, but many theater chains around the country have refused to show such films. The Internet has taken up the slack, giving citizens greater access to these political films, and filmmakers better access to the public. MoveOn's pioneering "house party" efforts with such films as Robert Greenwald's "Outfoxed" and "Uncovered" reversed the traditional film release sequence, with each selling more than 100,000 copies online before being released in movie theaters.