Skyline Drive-In screens Evergreen student films

Kirk Boxleitner | Jun 09, 20220

Anyone who swings by the Skyline Drive-In Theater in Shelton tonight (June 9) can catch a two-hour-long screening of 22 short student films from The Evergreen State College Mediaworks department, all for free.

Gates to the theater open for “Stars at the Skyline” at 8 p.m., with the screening set to commence around 9 p.m., depending on when it turns sufficiently dark. Mediaworks faculty members Suree Towfighnia and Julia Zay said they’re excited to share the work of their students, including junior Kris Kline, on the Skyline’s big screen.

“Our alumni have gone onto work for Sony and HBO, so you might see some of these names in the credits of films to come,” Towfighnia said. “This group of students alone constitutes an amazingly diverse field.”

Mediaworks screened student films at the Skyline in 2021 after COVID closed the Evergreen campus in 2020 and its faculty were forced to seek out alternative venues to showcase their students’ work. Tonight marks Kline’s first time being screened at the Skyline.

Kline, a self-identified gay cis male, assembled a documentary on the history of LGBTQ Pride, that critiques elements such as its increasing degree of appropriation by corporations, and he credited the Mediaworks program with furnishing student filmmakers such as himself with the skills and techniques to fine-tune their work, and make it creative and coherent in its messaging.

Just as Kline is eager to connect with audiences through the drive-in theater, so too are Towfighnia and Zay excited to return to the Skyline for more of what’s already been such a fun experience for them since 2021.

Towfighnia said it can be all too easy for students to become myopic about their own work, without grasping the scope of its impact until they can see it shown on a big screen.

“It’s especially nice to be able to screen it outside, among the stars, as opposed to feeling closed off in a hall indoors,” Towfighnia said. “A number of our students are more accustomed to seeing films online than in a theater, so this experience is super-impactful and meaningful for them.”

“And to be able to see their own films through a drive-in theater gives them a unique way of experiencing an important part of the history of film exhibition,” Zay said.

Towfighnia touted not only the “sense of joy, love and community” that she’s felt during her students’ previous screenings at the Skyline Drive-In Theater in 2021, but also the aesthetic of the drive-in itself.

Although The Evergreen State College is based in Olympia, Towfighnia and Zay said they welcome these opportunities to depart from their lecture halls on campus. They’ve appreciated being able to share their students’ hard work, not just with their loved ones and those close to them, but with people in Shelton.