After Sunset: The Life and Times of the Drive-In Theater
- Directed by
- John Bokenkamp
Directed by Jon Bokenkamp, this documentary is both a celebration of and a eulogy for a fading part of Americana, the unique offshoot of America's twin love affair with the automobile and movies. Invented in 1933, the drive-in movie theater business mushroomed in the post-World War II era. Bokenkamp and three friends trek across the United States, visiting drive-in theaters and talking to die-hard folks who still run very personalized operations. Highlights include plenty of nostalgia, various oddities, and quaint peculiarities of the surviving and extinct drive-ins, as well as interviews with director John Carpenter, author Michael Wallis, satirical movie columnist Joe Bob Briggs (John Bloom), and producer Samuel Z. Arkoff, who produced such drive-in fare as Beach Blanket Bingo.