‘Back to the Drive-In’ Documentary Explores Ups and Downs of Ma-and-Pa Theaters That Keep Film Under the Stars Alive
, a popularly rediscovered pandemic in the Los Angeles area, to the sometimes fog-enshrouded Wellfleet, which bills itself as the premiere family entertainment destination on Cape Cod. In-between are locations as distinct as Benjies, a ‘60s-era legend in its own right with a mammoth, Googie-ish marquee in the Baltimore area, to the Field of Dreams Drive-In, a full-service theater that a guy built literally in his very, very roomy back yard in rural Ohio.
The film keeps coming back to you hanging with the owner of the Wellfleet Drive-In in New England, which just about a block away from the ocean, and the fog is rolling in as it starts to get dark. It starts out light, and he’s thinking it’ll be OK, because the “Space Jam” sequel he’s showing is a pretty bright film. At some point almost becomes a suspense movie.
How much of the movie would you say is a snapshot of a moment in time about small businesses coming out of the pandemic, versus a general overview of how drive-ins have operated historically? Once you decided to focus on 11 drive-ins instead of three, were you looking for breadth and variety between them, even with certain commonalities?
The last drive-in I could think of that was operated by a major chain was the Vineland here in L.A. County in the City of Industry, which is still owned by Pacific. Since they have gotten rid of all their other theaters to focus on being a real estate concert, it’s ironic that the one theater they appear to have left after shutting down the Dome and everything else is a drive-in. Which is how they started.
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