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Black-Owned Pop-Up Movie Theater Pushes Back On Offering All-White Movies
By
Karen Rouse
Published Jul 22, 2020
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By
Karen Rouse
Published Jul 22, 2020
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The African American owners of New Jersey’s latest pop-up, drive-in theater are giving Ferris Bueller the day off.
With their launch of Newark Moonlight Cinema this Friday, Newark-based filmmaker Ayana Stafford-Morris and her husband, real estate developer, Siree Morris, ditched the '80s cult classic that stars Matthew Broderick—and instead will show Girls Trip, Creed II, and the 2007 remake of Hairspray — movies whose characters reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity of the region’s audiences.
“We want to be able to change the narrative,” said Stafford-Morris, 34. “When we say cult classic, it shouldn't just be assumed that it’s a white film.”
She said when she initially met with a movie licensing company, they suggested she feature such drive-in staples as Jaws, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
“Some of us like Ferris Bueller's Day Off. But that's not a cult classic for us,” Stafford-Morris said.
“When we’re sitting around the dinner table and we're having conversations about, ‘Remember what happened in that movie?’ That's not usually the one that we’re discussing.”
Pop-up drive-ins are proliferating across the country — on church properties, Walmart parking lots, even on farms, as people look for ways to have fun that don’t carry the risk of catching the coronavirus.
Indoor theaters, known in the industry as “hard-tops,” remain closed in New Jersey and in New York City due to the pandemic.
Morris and Stafford-Morris, parents to two boys, also want to create a safe entertainment outlet for families in Newark, which was among the top COVID-19 hotspots in the Garden State.
“You want to be safe because, you know, the coronavirus is so a real thing and it is still spreading.”
Newark Moonlight Cinema is timely in its answer to the public’s cry for social distancing activities; it also arrives on the heels of a national reckoning over race in which multiracial groups are rejecting spaces that don’t represent society.
“What she's doing is smart,” said Bob Piechota, the president of the National Association of Theatre Owners and owner of two theaters in Somerset County.
He said theater owners want to pick films that reflect the interests of their communities.
“You take a Newark, you have a lot of Black residents. So you would play something there that would do better, than say, Williamsburg, New York. It’s all Jews. If you play The Wiz there, who cares?”
The Wiz was a 1978 film that featured Diana Ross and Michael Jackson in a Black version of The Wizard of Oz.
Stafford said she first experienced a pop-up theater at the Lighthouse International Film Festival on Long Beach Island where her film, Why Is We Americans? about the family of late Newark poet Amiri Baraka, premiered. Baraka is the father of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.
She brought the idea to her husband. “He was like, ‘You know, the Bear Stadium site will be a great location.’”
The 7.4-acre site can hold up to 350 cars on the former minor-league Newark Bears Baseball Field at 54 Bridge Street. The property’s owner, Lotus Equity Group, has given them clearance to use the site though the fall for movies, she said.
The couple rented a 55-foot-tall inflatable screen; secured a popcorn machine and a grill-for-hire company to prepare burgers, hot dogs and fries, and will use a shed on site for the concessions like fountain sodas and Sour Patch Kids candy.
Prudential Financial is a sponsor of the theater.
Black-owned theaters are rare in the country. Two African American brothers made headlines last year when they opened a theater in Maryland using their own savings because they couldn’t find a lender.
“That is very important for us to control the narrative about who we are, the things that we like, to films that we like to see,” said Siree Morris, 37, “and I'm very happy to be able to put some positive faces on screen and create a positive experience for families.”
A few of the films scheduled to run at the Newark pop-up also have a local connection. Newark’s own Michael B. Jordan stars in Creed II and Just Mercy, while Hairspray and Girls Trip feature Newark native Queen Latifah.
And there are films with white stars, like Keanu Reeves in Hardball, which will also play this week. Morris, who is a Marvel Comics fan, is thrilled to also show Transformers.
Ashaki Goodall already has her tickets.
“I remember, when I was six, seven, eight, nine, 10, going to the drive-in movie in Ohio where I was growing up and going with my father,” said Goodall, who will go with her 21-year-old daughter.
“That's how we started the weekend is to go to the drive-in movie,” she said. “My sister and I, we used to love getting the popcorn … It's bringing back a lot of memories of just, you know, what you used to do together with your family.”
Newark Moonlight Cinema will feature movies Friday through Sunday, from July 24th, 2020 to October 4th, 2020. For health and safety, movie tickets and food must be purchased though the website, or FanFood app. Note that movie tickets are $12 per adult an $8 per child (not per car).
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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