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Filmmaker C.C. Webster grew up near Harrisburg, Pa., where she had two drive-in theaters to choose from. It helps explain how the Manhattanite sniffed out a drive-in more than an hour from the city to frequent.
It’s not that she doesn’t enjoy a traditional theater. That’s a revered experience for Webster. It’s quiet. It’s cold. It’s kind of like church. But at the drive-in people bring chairs, set up tables of food picnic-style and have their radios playing.
“It becomes more of a party than going to the theater,” Webster said.
So when Webster decided to have a film festival of her own, drive-ins seemed logical venues.
The inaugural Drive-In Film Festival will be held from Saturday, Aug. 23, through Tuesday, Sept. 23, along the East Coast. It stops in Felton Saturday, Aug. 23.
The independent full-length feature showing at the Diamond State will be “Kabluey,” starring Lisa Kudrow (“Friends”), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “P.S. I Love You”) and Christine Taylor (“Zoolander,” “Tropic Thunder”).
“It was a really random mix of folks but they felt really real in their surroundings,” Webster said.
The comedy features Kudrow as a mom who decides to accept her miserable brother-in-law, Salman, as a makeshift nanny while her husband is stationed in Iraq. After a coup by his nephews, Salman has to take on a job as a corporate mascot, Kabluey, to help the family survive. Surprisingly, life on the inside is a blessing.
Viewers will get some more traditional movie fare along with the indie in the forms of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Tropic Thunder.”
Traveling to drive-ins allows Webster to promote independent films to smaller towns that often don’t get those offerings, she said. It also helps the approximately 400 drive-ins in existence across the U.S.
“I couldn’t believe there were still that many, even though there are fewer and fewer every year,” Webster said.
She got to Diamond State Drive-In operator Donald Brown just in time. After this summer, the Diamond State Drive-In will be extinct.
Brown was eager to make the Felton landmark a stop on the festival.
“The drive-in was a haven for independent films in its heyday,” he said.
And now, with the drive-in closing, the festival will allow some one more unique way to experience the venue.
It’s an experience Webster recently shared with her young cousins.
“There is this jubilant, youthful atmosphere at the drive-in,” she said.
It’s also a bargain.
“You can see both for the price of one, that’s a great freedom,” she said of the traditional double feature format. “You feel like you’re really getting something for what you’re spending.”
Brown said the die-hard Diamond State Drive-In regulars from Sussex and New Castle counties might be skipping the drive-in more often because of high gas prices, but the theater is doing fine. Because Brown leases the land, the ultimate decision to stay open or to close is not his.
He said Kent Countians are lucky to have the balance of Dover Mall’s Carmike 14, the Schwartz Center for the Arts film series and the Diamond State Drive-In. He’s sad to see that diminished by one.
“I hope that when the drive-in is gone, people can look back and say it really added to the quality of life here in Kent County,” Brown said. “Once something like this is gone, it’s gone permanently.”
Editor’s note: Sarika Jagtiani is a Staff Writer for the Dover Post of which the Transcript is affiliated.
Filmmaker C.C. Webster grew up near Harrisburg, Pa., where she had two drive-in theaters to choose from. It helps explain how the Manhattanite sniffed out a drive-in more than an hour from the city to frequent.
It’s not that she doesn’t enjoy a traditional theater. That’s a revered experience for Webster. It’s quiet. It’s cold. It’s kind of like church. But at the drive-in people bring chairs, set up tables of food picnic-style and have their radios playing.
“It becomes more of a party than going to the theater,” Webster said.
So when Webster decided to have a film festival of her own, drive-ins seemed logical venues.
The inaugural Drive-In Film Festival will be held from Saturday, Aug. 23, through Tuesday, Sept. 23, along the East Coast. It stops in Felton Saturday, Aug. 23.
The independent full-length feature showing at the Diamond State will be “Kabluey,” starring Lisa Kudrow (“Friends”), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “P.S. I Love You”) and Christine Taylor (“Zoolander,” “Tropic Thunder”).
“It was a really random mix of folks but they felt really real in their surroundings,” Webster said.
The comedy features Kudrow as a mom who decides to accept her miserable brother-in-law, Salman, as a makeshift nanny while her husband is stationed in Iraq. After a coup by his nephews, Salman has to take on a job as a corporate mascot, Kabluey, to help the family survive. Surprisingly, life on the inside is a blessing.
Viewers will get some more traditional movie fare along with the indie in the forms of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Tropic Thunder.”
Traveling to drive-ins allows Webster to promote independent films to smaller towns that often don’t get those offerings, she said. It also helps the approximately 400 drive-ins in existence across the U.S.
“I couldn’t believe there were still that many, even though there are fewer and fewer every year,” Webster said.
She got to Diamond State Drive-In operator Donald Brown just in time. After this summer, the Diamond State Drive-In will be extinct.
Brown was eager to make the Felton landmark a stop on the festival.
“The drive-in was a haven for independent films in its heyday,” he said.
And now, with the drive-in closing, the festival will allow some one more unique way to experience the venue.
It’s an experience Webster recently shared with her young cousins.
“There is this jubilant, youthful atmosphere at the drive-in,” she said.
It’s also a bargain.
“You can see both for the price of one, that’s a great freedom,” she said of the traditional double feature format. “You feel like you’re really getting something for what you’re spending.”
Brown said the die-hard Diamond State Drive-In regulars from Sussex and New Castle counties might be skipping the drive-in more often because of high gas prices, but the theater is doing fine. Because Brown leases the land, the ultimate decision to stay open or to close is not his.
He said Kent Countians are lucky to have the balance of Dover Mall’s Carmike 14, the Schwartz Center for the Arts film series and the Diamond State Drive-In. He’s sad to see that diminished by one.
“I hope that when the drive-in is gone, people can look back and say it really added to the quality of life here in Kent County,” Brown said. “Once something like this is gone, it’s gone permanently.”
Editor’s note: Sarika Jagtiani is a Staff Writer for the Dover Post of which the Transcript is affiliated.
