The Parking Lot Movie

"It's not just a parking lot," begins the tagline for this new documentary. The lot it's referring is, yes, that lot. The one behind Little John's that ninety percent of the student body has cut through en route to or from the Corner. I still subconsciously expect the next clause to involve garbage juice, or bar flies stumbling across the train tracks.

But no, "it's a battle with humanity." Well damn. The Corner Parking Lot and its attendants seem to preside over something much more important than the quickest route to the Elliewood bars.

Directing our attention to this epic struggle is producer and director Meghan Eckman, CLAS '00, an accomplished documentary filmmaker. For the documentary she amassed 150 hours over three years of filming, and boiled it down to something that really looks fascinating. What really captured my attention in the trailer, and the quotes page, is how interesting these characters are. These dudes, who appear so unremarkable as us students walk past, here come across as Kerouacian figures. Their everyday appears so grandiose.

The Parking Lot Movie premiers at the South by Southwest music and film festival, which runs March 12-20, in the "Emerging Visions" portion of the show. For those of us not fortunate enough to attend SXSW, the film will light up the Paramount Theater on Saturday, March 27 at 7 PM, and will be shown in Newcomb Hall Theater on Saturday, April 10 at 6 PM as part of the Student Film Festival.

"In the parking lot we were dynamos. Whirlwinds. We were rulers. We had complete autonomy. We had it all in a world that had nothing to offer us."
Scott Meiggs

Parking Lot Attendant 1996-2000