It's one o'clock on Tuesday afternoon and Mildura is 300 kilometres behind me in the rear view. I'm taking a drive up to Broken Hill, 330 k north. Silver City. Big Screen goes up over the weekend of 6-9 April. And then on up to Tibooburra, down to White Cliffs, then Wilcannia and Menindee (we screened in both in 2005 - see the Wilcannia blog 2005) via Ivanhoe - town and correctional facility.

Over the first week of the Easter Big Screen will take The Tracker to Wilcannia and the Ivanhoe Correctional facility, The Oyster Farmer and Storm Boy, to the towns of Ivanhoe and Menindee, and The Proposition to White Cliffs (with Storm Boy for the kids). We're also taking Sunday Too Far Away and The Glenrowan Affair to Tibooburra drive-in for mum and dad, and Storm Boy and Dot and the Kangaroo to the Albert Hall during the day, for the kids.

But before all this, there's Oxide St and the Silver City Cinemas, Sturt Park and Theatre 44, and the beer garden of the Silverton pub - all lighting up over four days and nights of Oz screen gems in April.

8 April would be my pick for a perfect Saturday night out. Mad Max II in the beer garden of the Silverton pub. A town of 50; one pub. Notorious for all sorts of reasons; its screen history, one of them. On its walls is a list, 20 or so items long, of every different name the pub has worn in all its film and television appearances. And boards bedecked with snaps. There's Mel Gibson playing cards, Bryan Brown and John Goodman looking a bit dusty, Arkie Whiteley looking young and bright, Bruce Spence tall, Bill Kerr at his best. Best of all, if you're a Mad Max fan, rev-head, biker, or just somewhere nearby, Max's interceptor in parked outside.

Now if that's not a night worth travelling for, nothing is. There's a return bus from Broken Hill, a movie, and sausage sizzle (for the 'firries') and one of the most amazing venues of the Big Screen tour - rating with the Coober Pedy Drive in and probably Tibooburra as well, as atmospheric to the point of distraction. And of course it's a beer garden, so there's no reason not to relax in the knowledge that Big Screen will get you back to bed in town safe and sound.

Friday night will be great as well. We'll launch with a picnic at Picnic at Hanging Rock under the stars in Sturt Park. There's also The Proposition screening with The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith at Silver City Cinema on Sunday afternoon; a Saturday digital matinee of Little Fish and Oyster Farmer at Theatre 44; Storm Boy and Hating Alison Ashley back by popular demand for the schools; and a free bub's club screening of Dot and the Kangaroo on Saturday morning.

I spend a night in Broken Hill and then head southeast to Menindee for a drive to Ivanhoe. I need to visit the prison, meet the mayor of Central Darling Shire, Ray, and his wife, Jan, and check the venues for our screenings there. It's a four-hour drive, more than half of it on the dirt road that links the two towns.

As you leave Menindee you head into red desert and then on into the vast plains of SW NSW. It's hot and dusty and beautiful. I spend only an hour in town meeting everyone I need and feeding into the excitement Ray is building up for our two-night stand in Ivanhoe. This tour out from Broken Hill is where Big Screen gets very exciting. It's where I really feel I have a great job; taking films into tiny isolated towns; towns of 200 or less; towns without cinemas. In communities like this it really is “when the show comes to town”.

From Ivanhoe I drive into Hay for a night, just a stop over. And then down to Deniliquin where we screen on Friday March 10. The local high school will see No Worries during the day and we'll screen The Proposition in the Edward Theatre on Friday night. From Deniliquin, three hours north-west up the NSW and Victorian border and Mildura is in my sights again. It's Thursday afternoon and we have our first outdoor screening coming up in the evening at the Homestead Lawns. And The Oyster Farmer packs them in. An amazing 300 locals come out on a beautiful night to sit by the Murray and enjoy the Hawkesbury.

The Proposition, Picnic At Hanging Rock and Look Both Ways all have fantastic attendances. And every night audiences have been of all ages: from the very young to the very old, and everything in between. That's a great thing to be a part of - whole families coming to the movies together. I think too that the locals have grown to just love outdoor movies.

And the indoor screenings have been packing them in as well. On Saturday morning (4 March) 176 children and their parents and grandparents came out for our first Big Screen Bub's Club screening of The Magic Pudding. Attendances like this are what you expect for Harry Potter, or Ice Age II - for Hollywood blockbusters, not for Australian classics. The fact that so many people came says to me that these people are hungry for their own stories in their own voices, and they want their children to see and hear them as well.

We had three full sessions of No Worries for the schools as well, last week. Big Screen works hard to find the best way to show, what have to be the best films for each town. To have so many people in to see so much of the program, across classics, children's and contemporary, shows that our work is paying off beautifully, and Mildura is home again to Australian cinema.

See you in Broken Hill, Tibooburra, White Cliffs, Wilcannia, Ivanhoe and Menindee.