Director’s Statement When I tell someone I’m from Florida a smirk and a crack about ‘Florida Man’s’ latest misadventure usually come next. I get it. Florida is a weird place full of flip- flops, alligator-skinned old ladies and bad tattoos, but when people talk about Florida that way I can’t help but get defensive. To me, there’s so much more under that kooky surface. It’s a jumbled, sensitive place of untamable wilderness and inherent complexity. I found myself living back in Florida not long ago and wanting to make a film that took on that idiosyncrasy. Driving from my parents’ house on A1A highway along the east coast I stumbled on The Daytona Beach Drive-In Christian Church. At first the idea of sitting in a car to go to church seemed deranged to me. What could be more vacant of spirituality and human connection than going to church sealed off in the most alienating of American inventions, your car? I decided I had to go to a service. I was surprised to learn this wasn’t some kind of fly-by-night operation — the church has been offering services from the convenience of your car since 1953. As I got to know the members of the congregation, my thinking about the bizarre place started to slowly shift. I realized that many of them had very personal motivations for attending a church like this. Some suffered from a physical illness and found the easy accessibility of the space a plus. Others had lost a loved one and wanted privacy as they mourned. A few more just wanted to attend service with their pets. Whatever their reason, they were all seeking some form of comfort and strength in one shape or another. I filmed at the church over the course of three Sundays, and you see footage from all three days in the film. On the last Sunday when the pastor gave a sermon about the insidious nature of technology and the divide it creates among us, it echoed deeply for me. What I realized in making this film is that in many ways, we’re all just sitting, isolated in our own experiences with the windows rolled up and the AC blasted on high wondering why we have trouble connecting with our world and the people around us. To be clear, I felt just as complicit as the church-goers in their cars, if not more so — I was, after all, filming them, trying to make a film about the human experience, but really hiding behind the trusty shield of my ‘observational’ camera. As I’ve travelled to film festivals with this short, audience responses have run the gamut. Some think it’s the strangest thing they’ve ever seen, others think it’s absurdly funny (after one screening a guy even asked if I usually ‘edit comedy’), still others come up to me after and personally thank me for my treatment of the drive-in church and its congregation. There’s always the lurking sense though that people want to know what I really think of this place. There is no judgment here. For me, the drive-in church represents a microcosm of what we each struggle with everyday: trying to connect with each other and our environment despite our increasing technology-fueled isolation. Just like my feelings about my home state, this film is a push-and-pull between the seeming absurdity on the surface and the humanity that lies beneath. Bio Lauren DeFilippo (please link name to website www.laurendefilippofilms.com) is a Brooklyn-based director and producer. She is currently working on a feature-length documentary titled Red Heaven about humanity’s future on Mars. Credits Directed by Lauren DeFilippo Featuring: Pastor Robert Kemp-Baird and the congregation of the Daytona Beach Drive-In Christian Church Producers: Lauren DeFilippo, Katherine Gorringe, Allison Kelley Camera: Lauren DeFilippo Editor: Lauren DeFilippo Composer: Hector Laguna Sound Recording: Elizabeth DeFilippo, Stephanie Metzger, Vivienne Rohan Color Correction: Kyle Kelley Sound Mix: Josh Berger Additional Music: Ghost Fields Supported by Fermenter Artist Residency, Gallery Protocol Thank You: Robert Kemp-Baird, Eric and Dahlia Louie, Terry and Melodye Sabiston, Russell Fry, Chase Westfall, Ashley Connor, Sam Metro, Katie Solito, Ron and Elizabeth DeFilippo Contacts (please remember to note title change in outreach) Chase Westfall – Gallery Protocol - charlesawestfall@gmail.com Clementine Leger, Slamdance programmer - clementine@slamdance.com Shane Smith, Hot Docs programmer - ssmith@hotdocs.ca Tim Anderson, Florida Film Festival - tanderson@enzian.org Dominic Davis, Rooftop Films - dominic@rooftopfilms.com Florida Tourism- https://www.facebook.com/floridatourism (the drive in church is listed as a tourist destination in Daytona Beach https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g7791278-d265552-Reviews-Daytona_Beach_Drive_In_Christian_Church-Daytona_Beach_Shores_Florida.html)