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Moviegoers at the Zidell Yards drive-in will be treated to a rarely seen perspective on the Ross Island Bridge.

(Marc Mohan)

Summer can be a rough time for Portland film buffs. For the vast majority of the year, this is a perfect city in which to spend endless hours in a darkened room staring at flickering lights on a screen. But during those few blessed weeks of sunny days and comfortable nights, it can take real willpower to duck inside for even a promising flick. (And it rarely gets hot enough for an air-conditioned theater to feel like a refuge instead of a tomb.)

Drive-in at Zidell Yards

When:

Saturday, Aug. 3, through Monday, Aug. 5. Gates open at 7:30 p.m., showtime at dusk; gates open at 11 p.m. Saturday for midnight showing of "Dazed and Confused"

Where:

Zidell Yards, 3030 S.W. Moody Ave.

Tickets:

Individual films $8 per person, double feature $12 per person, cash only

Website:

If it gets hard to lure viewers inside, though, why not just bring the movies outside? That's an increasingly popular option, as demonstrated by the fact that this week alone, you'd need two hands to count the number of outdoor film screenings. The Movies in the Park series has "Mary Poppins" at Laurelhurst Park on Friday, and "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" at Earl Boyles Park on Saturday. There's a parking lot showing of "The Dark Crystal" Saturday night as well, at Burnside Brewing, and the Northwest Film Center's popular Top Down series, held on the roof of the parking garage at the Hotel deLuxe, continues on Thursday with Woody Allen's "Zelig."

But the most ambitious and potentially impressive effort of this sort will debut this weekend under the west end of the Ross Island Bridge, as a vacant, gravel-covered lot will be temporarily transformed into the first genuine drive-in theater Portland has had since the Foster Drive-In closed in 1999. (The closest one to the city these days is the 99W Drive-In in Newberg, and the website driveinmovie.com lists only four others currently operational in Oregon.)

Zidell Yards, a familiar rectangle of emptiness on the South Waterfront landscape, has been owned by the shipbuilding Zidell family for decades. With the area filling in rapidly from development by OHSU and others, and with the land environmentally restored following long-term industrial use, it won't be vacant forever. That realization helped spur Matt French, the nephew of current Zidell Companies head Jay Zidell, to pursue his brainchild: a pop-up drive-in theater.

The lineup of films, chosen in coordination with the Northwest Film Center, includes a Saturday double feature of “Singin’ in the Rain” (at dusk) and “Dazed and Confused” (at midnight), followed by “Jaws” on Sunday night and a unconventional closing night selection, “Blue Velvet,” on Monday. (The thought of drivers on I-5 inadvertently witnessing some of David Lynch’s trademark perversity is enough to make the whole enterprise seem worthwhile.) French expects to fit around 350 cars in the lot, with dedicated space up front for those who chose, in pleasingly Portland fashion, to walk, bike, or ride to the drive-in. If you’re not in a car, though, bring a chair or a blanket—an evening on the gravel would not be fun.

Sound will emanate from a speaker array near the 40-foot wide screen, and from any radio tuned to the appropriate FM frequency. Keeping the radio on with the engine off shouldn't strain most car batteries, but it might be a good idea to start it up for a few minutes during the double feature intermission on Saturday. And getting there can be confusing, so planning your trip is advisable.

Arriving before dusk (gates open at 7:30 p.m.) is advisable, too. The spot provides a rare perspective on the Willamette River and downtown Portland, including the under-construction Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge and Ross Island Bridge pylons that are so far from the beaten path that they’re completely graffiti-free. It’s the sort of unique environment that could make for a memorable movie experience, and just might make you swear off shopping-mall theaters for life.