Rocket Cinema Celebrates a Meteoric Five Years of Mobile Movies

Sara Nelson and Justin Sherburn never planned to become cinema managers. Like everyone else, the husband-and-wife musician duo found themselves at loose ends during the pandemic. Best known at that point as composer and keyboardist for instrumental ensemble Montopolis, Sherburn had just received a touring grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for The Living Coast, an environmental multimedia project. At the time, indoor venues were closed, so “I just moved the shows outside,” he said. 

For his last scheduled concert on the tour, he rented an inflatable movie screen. “At that event, I went, ‘What do I do now?’” he recalled, and, looking at the projection equipment, he thought, “I could do that.” Sherburn took a loan out against his touring van and then trawled Facebook Marketplace for projectors, generators, and all necessary equipment to create a mobile movie palace.

Next came the mobile cinema’s name – something to reflect the speed and mobility of their service. ”We thought about Bottle Rocket, the movie, and that independent spirit,” Nelson said, “and then we decided it was too many syllables and so we just shortened it to Rocket.” And so Rocket Cinema was launched. 

“Turned out it was a pretty savvy move,” Sherburn said, “doing outdoor movies during the pandemic.” 

That savvy response has now become an Austin cinematic institution. It’s not just about renting equipment: They’ve provided projection for events as diverse as The VVitch in the goat pen at Jester King Brewery, Purple Rain at Kenny Dorham’s Backyard, Koyaanisqatsi at Laguna Gloria with a chorus of cicadas, and, of course, the infamously interactive Jaws on the Water at Volente Beach. After over 250 screenings, the couple will celebrate Rocket Cinema’s fifth anniversary with a special birthday party on May 29 at Ani’s Day & Night. 

Rather than just screening one film to celebrate five years of mobile movie magic, the evening at Ani’s will include live music from the Dialtones and Scan Hopper accompanying original animation by Topher Sipes, Paul Beck, and Lyon Graulty. “They’re all wonderful animators,” Sherburn explained. “We’re going to projection map on the building and around the venue to show off their work.”

Collaboration is all important for Rocket Cinema. In their first year, when the traditional theatres were all closed, they worked with multiple local film festivals and the Austin Parks Foundation. However, even when indoor venues reopened, many of those partner groups wanted to stay outdoors, and Rocket Cinema became that rare pandemic-inspired project to become permanent. “Once we had repeat customers, we went, ‘Well, I guess we’re going to keep doing this,’” Nelson said. 

The night’s theme is space, a destination that has fascinated the Rocketeers recently. Last year they made Central Presbyterian Church’s ceiling stellar for Power of a Planet, a mapped video installation using NASA imagery animated by The Living Coast director Anlo Sepulveda. That one-off experiment is now set to become Planetarium Mobilis, a pop-up planetarium that will debut June 4 at Factory on 5th with a live score from Nelson and Sherburn’s ambient teamup, Highway Lights.

Sherburn described Planetarium Mobilis as part of a new strand of installation and activation programming for Rocket, but they’re definitely not darkening the screen for feature films. Just as Rocket Cinema reaches five years, this fall they’ll host a 25th anniversary of Richard Linklater’s Waking Life, a movie for which both Nelson and Sherburn performed on the score. (Although, he is quick to point out, Sherburn’s only on one track, but Nelson’s on the whole thing as part of the Tosca Tango Orchestra.) Nelson described it as a lost gem in Linklater’s catalog that they’re glad to bring to audiences in their own anniversary year: “It’s such a unique film, and really special.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to change the date of the anniversary party to Saturday, May 29. The event was postponed due to storms in the forecast.

This article appears in May 22 • 2026.