DOXA Documentary Film Festival brings back the Drive-In at the PNE Amphitheatre
Cars limited to household bubbles as fest screens films May 13 to 15
Photo by Jona Schm.
The Gig Is Up screens at the DOXA Drive-In
DOXA Documentary Film Festival has announced it will bring back the drive-in theatre from May 13 to 15.
Alongside more than 100 films streaming online, DOXA Drive-In will host seven screenings for its automotive audiences at the PNE Amphitheatre, including a number of new documentaries by up-and-coming Vancouver filmmakers.
Guests will be asked to stay in their vehicle during screenings except for restroom access, and DOXA says “strict COVID-19 health and safety protocols will be in place throughout the event to ensure the safety of attendees and staff”. Cars will be limited to household bubbles. A mask will be required at all times when guests are outside of their vehicles. Full rules are spelled out here.
A few local organizations had tried to get drive-in screenings off the ground in spring 2020 after indoor theatres were forced to shutter. But in May of last year provincial health officer Bonnie Henry amended a public-health order that prohibits gatherings of more than 50 people so that it would ban more than 50 vehicles for "outdoor drive-in events", with a restriction on the sale of refreshments. This effectively killed plans in the works by the Vancouver International Film Festival, Point Blank Shows, and Fresh Air Cinema, who said they would need at least 150 cars allowed to pay for the erection of screens, safety staffing, and other accommodations. The ban also extended to established theatres like Aldergrove-Langley's Twilight Drive-In, which had run until that point during the pandemic.
Having found a way to work within the guidelines at the PNE site—with a maximum 50 cars per screening—the DOXA fest plans to show Shannon Walsh’s The Gig is Up, offering a glimpse into the rapidly expanding gig economy around the globe. Another locally produced film, Brishkay Ahmed’s In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland, chronicles the saga of Zan TV, a female-operated and -oriented news agency in Kabul, Afghanistan. It will also screen the fest’s two big music docs: FANNY: The Right to Rock and Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché. The DOXA Drive-In will also play host to Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’s Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy, Sheona McDonald’s Dead Man’s Switch: a crypto mystery, and Someone Like Me (featured as part of DOXA’s Rated Y for Youth program).
Screenings will go ahead rain or shine, with tickets priced at $50 per carload, per film, and a limit of six passengers to a car. Guests are asked not to leave their vehicle during screenings except for restroom access.
DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs May 6-16, 2021, offering an exceptional selection of films, filmmaker Q&A’s and live streaming events.
Drive-In tickets now available at www.ticketleader.ca.
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