The Broken Altar

A video documentary/road trip that celebrates the drive-in movie theater's impact on the United States, and pays homage to the people who keep the few remaining ones fully operational. Features interviews with horror movie maker John Carpenter, movie critic John I. Bloom (aka "Joe Bob Briggs"), Michael Wallis, author of "Route 66: The Mother Road," and others.

In Thorold, Ontario in the summer of 1996, a movie legend was made when a real-life tornado hit a drive-in theatre during a screening of Twister. But how much truth really lies inside this tale of life (or weather) imitating art?

A darkly beautiful visual essay that explores human emotion in response to societal standards. With a lone cello providing the soundtrack, this collage of archival footage from 1950’s-era films is a superb example of manipulation via sound and image (Dorothy Woodend, DOXA Documentary Film Festival)

A feature-length documentary that goes behind the scenes to get to know the families who own and operate drive-in theaters.

Unable to purchase a $50,000 digital projector, a group of film fanatics in rural Pennsylvania fight to keep a dying drive-in theater alive by screening only vintage 35mm film prints and working entirely for free.

Paying tribute to some of America's only surviving drive-ins – and those who keep them running – this heartfelt documentary captures efforts to preserve these nostalgic theaters in small-towns across the country.

A nostalgic, informative history of drive-in movie theaters, featuring extensive archival photographs and interviews with Leonard Maltin, John Bloom, Samuel Z. Arkoff, Barry Corbin and many others... Drive-In Movie Memories is a film celebration of America's greatest icon of youth, freedom and the automobile. What began as an auto parts owner's business venture to make some easy money accidentally became a magical place where romance, fun and a sense of community flourished. This film chronicles the drive-in's birth and development, its phenomenal popularity with audiences of all ages, its tragic decline, and its inevitable comeback as a classic form of Americana.

A collection of Drive In Movie Intermission ads from the 1950's - 1960's.

A short experimental documentary is filmed at the last drive-in movie theater in Los Angeles, located in a desolate area called the City of Industry. Floating within a backdrop of smokestacks, beacon towers and passing trains, dislocated Hollywood images filled with apocalyptic angst are re-framed and reflected through car windows and mirrors as the displacement of the radio broadcast soundtrack collides with the projections upon and surrounding the multiple screens. In VINELAND, the nocturnal landscape is seen as a border zone aglow with dreamlike illusions revealing overlapping realities at the intersection of nostalgia and alienation.

Dexter and Royce, two stoner friends in Weedsville, scramble to cover up the apparent overdose of Royce's girlfriend, Mattie, by trying to bury her at a closed drive-in theater. Their plan goes sideways when they stumble into a Satanic cult mid-ritual, and Mattie unexpectedly comes back to life. Now pursued by the cult, they also face threats from local drug dealer Omar, demanding payment for a botched drug deal. In a desperate bid to settle their debt, Dexter and Royce steal a safe from a wealthy coma patient while evading the cult and Omar’s enforcers. The chaos culminates at a New Age center, where Mattie is nearly sacrificed, but the trio manages to escape after an explosive showdown that leaves both the cult and Omar neutralized. With their debt cleared and Mattie alive, Dexter and Royce flee the scene, barely escaping the insanity.