A Night at the Drive In

TABLE TOP: Kids were out to catch a wave on screen from the family car roof. Photo Faine Laubser

Nestling among trees along the upper western slopes of the City Bowl below Lions Head, the sport field at Jan Van Riebeeck school must count as one of the most spectacular venues in Cape Town ... for a night of surf movies anyway.

Our movie night, which was due to be hosted by Galileo during the festival in November 2020 in Constantia, had to be cancelled due to a pumping southeaster. Fortunately, we managed to slot the movies into another night, and luckily, we could not have chosen better.

It was like Clifton has been twice in 15 years. Calm. Balmy! Friday night was spectacular ... a clear night sky sparkling with stars and twinkling with myriad torch lights of trail runners and walkers snaking around Lions Head. To cap it off, to the left of the movie screen loomed Table Mountain, while behind us shimmered the lights of Cape Town.

RUNNERS UP: Epic Clifton substitute, with lights from joggers on Lion's Head Photo Faine Laubser

The surf community came out in their cars for a fun and socially distanced screening (even the cars had to be spaced apart). From Wavescape's perspective, we finally got to share what we thought was pretty much the best lineup of films we had in 2020, with one or two exceptions.

We got to premiere the fabulous RISS, Peter Hamblin's whacky profile of Carissa Moore, as well as the dystopian Adapt, by Kyle Buthnum, the sweeping Mirage, by Alan van Gysen, the sumptious Jungle, by Morgan Maassen, and the visionary Unnur, by Chris Burkard.

The veteran drive-inners parked off atop their cars with cushions or chairs, and a picnic hamper. There were kids muching pizzas on the roof, while young adults chilled on blankets in front of their reversed hatchback, bakkie or SUV, while couples reclined in the back of reversed cars, or cuddled in the old school drive-in fashion: watching from inside through their windscreen.

One young adult, in comparing it to our screening at Clifton 4th Beach, said that the drive-in was so easy to attend, and no sand to get in your sarmies! We hope to return to the days of sand in sarmies. Until then ...

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