Le-Alem Getachew, 29, has dreamed of creating a drive-in movie theater since she was 8 years old.
Dubbed the “side quest queen” by her friends, Getachew never had a drive-in to go to as a child growing up in Gainesville. For the past year, she has worked to fulfill the ambitions of her younger self, and Thursday night, her dream became a reality.
The Gainesville Drive-In Theater had its first showing of “Matilda” this week, where moviegoers could tune in to the film via their car radios or hang out on the lawn. Located at 704 S. Main St. behind The Knot - Climbing Gym, the field safely fit 12 vehicles and welcomed around 50 pedestrians to the premiere.
“I wanted to do this to give young me a little hug and let her know that this can exist here,” Getachew said.
Little Getachew would have been happy to dance among the young attendees in the crowd, waving their glowsticks and laughing along to one of her favorite childhood films.
While much of Gainesville’s predominantly college-aged population wasn’t alive at the peak of the drive-in theater craze, students turned out to the event, much like students of past generations.
The only other drive-in theaters to exist in Gainesville opened in the mid-1900s and closed before the turn of the century.
Gainesville Drive-In, which operated from 1948 to 1992, was located on Southeast Hawthorne Road. With a capacity for around 400 vehicles, the drive-in sold tickets for 50 cents a pop.
Another drive-in located on Northwest 13th Street was Suburbia Drive-In, which was in business from 1952 to 1978. Once a hotbed for fights and police activity, Suburbia turned itself around, even encouraging kids to do their chores by using the laundromat on the premises to do their laundry. The theater also offered midnight movies for University of Florida students.
Though the Lucille Ball and Clint Eastwood flicks these theaters promoted are cinema of the past, The Gainesville Drive-In Theater attempts to make something old new again.
“It's just a timeless classic that I think has such a huge cultural significance in the film industry and should be brought back in a modern way,” Getachew said of the theater.
The real labor that her “passion project” underwent occurred over the past two months. Getachew, who has a background in marketing and event planning, reached out to volunteers and collaborated with local businesses to put rubber to the road.
Getachew borrowed a screen and a projector from local movie studio IMASTREAM and provided her own radio transmitter. A screen and projector alone are around $10,000 but she hopes to buy her own equipment and land for the theater. She plans to use the funds from the first showing and future fundraising to achieve this goal.
The theater’s creative director, Yankel Amarante, 30, has worked with Getachew in previous event organizing endeavors and put her passion for vintage design into the theater’s branding. Without Amarante and the other sponsors’ help, Getachew said her DIY project wouldn’t have been possible.
“I think people need a sense of community, which is one of the things I love about Gainesville,” Amarante said. “People here dream things, and they make it.”
Over an hour before the movie began, the first car to arrive at the drive-in was that of UF students Carli Sarmiento and Laura Wilson. Wilson, 20, who founded Lavender Media Productions her freshman year, said she is passionate about all the forms cinema can take.
“As someone who wants to go into the film industry, it's so important that we explore new and old ways of trying to get people to show out for films,” Wilson said.
Wilson and Sarmiento said they had never attended a drive-in. In the car behind them, Ciara Bringardner said she was eager for her two children to experience the freedom of an outdoor theater. The open-air environment of a drive-in was important to Getachew, as many may not feel comfortable in tight spaces especially in a post-pandemic world.
Bringardner’s daughter, Gidget, 10, an avid “Matilda” fan, had seen the Broadway production of the film in London and watches it every year on her birthday. She said she was eager to chat with her friends during the showing, something she couldn’t do in an indoor theater.
Ori Bringardner, 5, just came for the candy.