Phoenix Backyard Cinema is an ongoing film series that I have been running in the backyard of my house since 2008.  The original goal was to present the kind of independent, experimental and foreign films that weren't likely to screen anywhere else in the valley and to help strengthen the local film community.   Since that time, the selection of films in commercial theatres has greatly improved and we have shifted our focus to classics.

Here is the list of films we have screened in the last seven years:  Joon-Hu Bong’s “The Host” • Shane Carruth’s “Primer” • Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead 2” • John Carpenter’s “The Thing” • Guy Maddin’s “Brand Upon the Brain”  • Tarsem’s “The Fall” • “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” •  Werner Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World” • Wong Kar-Wai’s “Chungking Express” • Olivier Assayas’ “Irma Vep” • Samuel Fuller’s “Pickup on South Street” • Nicholas Ray’s “They Live by Night” • Joel Schumacher’s “The Lost Boys” • Tomas Alfredson’s “Let the Right One In” • Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”  • Mary Harron’s “I Shot Andy Warhol” •  Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth’s “The Five Obstructions” • Jacques Tourner’s “I Walked With a Zombie” •  Michele Soavi’s “Cemetery Man” • John Crowley’s “Boy A” • Bruce Johnson’s ”Withnail and I” •  Anh Hung Tran’s “Cyclo” • Remi Bezancon’s “The First Day of the Rest of Your Life”  •  Riann Johnson’s “The Brothers Bloom” •  Hannes Stohr’s “Berlin Calling” • Sean Ellis’ “Cashback” • Gott Spielmann’s “Revanche” • Paul King’s “Bunny and the Bull” •  Wim Wenders’ “Paris, Texas” • Olivier Assayas’ “Summer Hours”• Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “The Double Life of Veronique”  • Christopher Morris’ “Four Lions” • Josh Fox’s “Gasland” •  Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” • Park Chan-Wook’s “Joint Security Area” • Tomm Moore & Nora Twomey’s “Secret of Kells” • Claire Denis’ “White Material”  •  Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" • Richard Ayoade's "Submarine" • Andre Ovredal's "Troll Hunter" • Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" • Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" • Wes Anderson's "Rushmore" • Roman Polanski's "Chinatown" •Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's "What We Do in the Shadows"  • George Lucas'  "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back." • Alfonso Cuaron's "Children of Men"

All photos on this page were shot by Melissa Fossum.