The Parking Lot Movie

-By Lisa

The Parking Lot Movie really is a movie about a Charlottesville parking lot.

But because this particular parking lot happens to be in our unique little corner of the world, the parking lot attendants are…well…documentary worthy.

What happens when you have a group of highly educated graduate students, philosophers and professors working at a low level service job? They think about it. A lot. They wax poetic and more than a tad cynical about the plight of the world and all of us suckers on it. They consider it an opportunity to contemplate impermanence, detachment and the concept of fundamental self. All that while taking your ticket and double parking your car – which they quietly judge you for having in the first place.  

They view the parking lot as a microcosm of the western world - with all it's trappings. They analyze the ongoing class struggle, car culture and the making or breaking of nuanced social contracts. They deal with sorority sisters and Suburbans, public puking and people who drive off without paying. They question a consumer culture in which the possession of money gives you the right to get whatever that money can buy. 

And then they play Flip Cone and write obscure phrases on the gate.

The attendants are an elite group; getting a job at the Corner Parking Lot means knowing someone connected. It's not a career for most of these guys, just a temporary stop-over in the humble attendant's booth which they view as "the type of building Jesus would have collected parking fees from." At some point, they move on to a variety of fields, one is a professor of philosophy, one is a law school student and another is the Senior Librarian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

This movie is a fascinating commentary on cultural assumptions and the complicated social dynamics in Charlottesville. It examines humanity and the existential implications of a job - any job. The Senior Librarian in New York is still the same guy who was parking cars on the Corner, but now people look him in the eye when he does his job. So, what do our jobs really say about us as human beings? 

Watch The Parking Lot Movie online, or in the Charlottesville area, watch this Friday, October 22nd at 10PM on Independent Lens on WVPT. Check here for your local listings in other cities or rent it on itunes.

For more from Lisa, check out www.justherejustnow.com