High-speed computer access is not the only way to spare yourself a trip to the video store.

Among the most popular alternatives, rent-by-mail giant Netflix has attracted millions of users with its giant library of DVDs and simple fee structure ($20 for as many movies as you can watch in a month).

It has been so successful that brick-and-mortar video giant Blockbuster plans to expand its online DVD sales service next year to include rentals, for mail delivery.

Now, a subscription service called Film Movement (www.filmmovement.com) is aiming to bring small independent movies to viewers no matter where they live.

Founded by Larry Meistrich, the veteran independent producer behind such films as Sling Blade, Film Movement puts movies in theaters and in the hands of home video clients at the same time.

The company buys all distribution rights to foreign, independent and documentary films that have won film-festival awards and other honors. The company books its films into theaters and special exhibitions, and at the same time offers DVD copies for sale to subscribers. As a bonus, Film Movement pays for theatrical tickets if one of its films later is shown in a theater near a subscriber's home.

Current offerings include The Party's Over, a political documentary hosted by Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the Chinese family comedy Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity, playing this week at Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center and next month at theaters in several cities.

Meistrich believes the time is right to defy the normal industry bias against releasing movies in theaters and on home video at the same time.

"I don't live in Manhattan anymore," he said, "and you don't have a lot of choices of entertainment where I am now. So I thought it would be very appealing to parents, people who are very busy, commuters, who are still culturally connected but don't have a chance to get out to the art houses in the big cities."

"The American lifestyle has gotten so complicated, we are trying to offer a way to participate in independent film without having to alter your life to do it. ... I don't want my kids to grow up and only be able to see The Butterfly Effect and Scooby-Doo.

"There's an audience out there that's ... scattered and not necessarily near an art-house theater; we're really trying to improve the size of the audience."

Margaret A. McGurk