Everything old was new again when the Sedona International Film Festival unveiled its new “Movies on the Move” truck at the Seven Canyons Golf Club on Thursday, Nov. 16.

“I remember the fun that [drive-ins] created when you got a band of people together and had three or four cars parked in a row, and you made it a party out there as you were watching the film,” SIFF Executive Director Patrick Schweiss said. ”That’s a throwback to yesteryear, and we’re hoping to bring some of that back.”

The truck will allow SIFF to bring the outdoor movie drive-in experience to locations throughout the Verde Valley. It was made possible by a $10,000 donation from Renee and Doug Leuthold to purchase the truck and equipment and a $7,000 contribution from Chris Fladlien for branding and customizing the vehicle. SIFF purchased the truck and its equipment from Dave Meyers of Cottonwood, who was going to use it to operate the Verde Drive-In to showcase classic and second-run movies in Camp Verde.

“[Meyers] got called into active duty and as he was leaving for active duty, he found that his wife was three months pregnant. She was not going to continue the movie business,” Schweiss said. “When he got back from his year [of] service, he had a 3-month-old son, and their priorities changed.”

The couple listed the truck and equipment on Facebook Marketplace over the summer, where Schweiss saw it. He later mentioned the opportunity during a donor update and Renee Leuthold was intrigued.

“It immediately hit me,” Leuthold said. “What a fun and novel idea for the film festival to expand how we reach the community.”

The Leutholds have been married since 1979, but they still recall their first date to see the movie “Sounder” in the theatres in 1972.

“We’re old enough that we were going to drive-in theatres for movies and have fond memories of that,” Renee Leuthold said. “I remember when we lived in Iowa, we had a hatchback and took our dog and we’d go to drive-in movie theatres. So the whole concept of going back to drive-in movie theatres is just exciting and fun. So we said we need to make this happen for Sedona.”

“We bought the truck and all the equipment for $10,000 and it was this plain white truck,” Schweiss said. “So we’re like ‘Huh, we should get it wrapped.’ Because then it could be signage as it’s sitting in our parking lot. When it’s not being used, we might as well draw attention to ourselves, or when we’re driving it around the road. People will know us.”

The $7,000 cost for Cottonwood-based Viking Media to customize the truck was paid for by SIFF benefactor Fladlien, who has also contributed to the festival’s opera programing.

“I was inspired to donate because it’s a piece of artwork and I’m into art,” Fladlien said. “I’m drawn to original prints, lithographs, etchings, and I’m excited to see this finished.”

“We incorporated period-correct cars in the scene, specifically a 1956 Ford F-100 panel truck,” Viking Media owner Erik Otteson said. “Then we’ve got colors that you would see from the era such as that glow of the movie projector, so we got amber-gold, which is a lighter gold projecting. We’ve incorporated Sedona Red Rock colors because you can’t forget that.”

The design also incorporates a movie reel, “almost throwing it back to 1992,” Otteson joked.

“We had a challenge in bringing all three of the [SIFF] logos, the different theatre names and the main logo, not redesigning it and creating it into something that is readable,” Otteson said. “We took that and put it on a movie screen and made it [look] like credits.”

Those efforts at readability follow Otteson’s “four-second rule” to enable people to identify the vehicle quickly when it is driving along 89A to showcase movies across the Verde Valley.

In addition, the truck doubles as a concession stand and came with its own popcorn maker.

Movies on the Move is expected to launch in April and run through the early fall. 

The truck will offer pop-up showings at locations throughout the valley, including Tlaquepaque, the Sedona-Oak Creek Airport, The Collective in the Village of Oak Creek and the Town of Camp Verde.

“We want people to have fun finding where we are, and coming for the outdoor movies,” Schweiss said. “We’ll do two versions of this. One where we have the speaker setup, where people bring lawn chairs, and they’re watching a film that we’re pumping the sound to them from speakers. The other kind, for example, up on the airport, where we’d set it up like an old-fashioned drive-in where people are watching the films from their car with the sound coming through their FM radio.”

Schweiss anticipates that it will take about six part-time positions to run the program, with three to four people handling setup — the 32-foot inflatable screen weighs about 500 pounds — one running concessions and one doing ticket sales.

“We will take from our wonderful team. Anyone who wants those hours, we’ll let them have first crack at that, then we’ll hire any extra help that we need,” Schweiss said.

Although SIFF has not yet selected the films the truck will be showing, Schweiss cited “Grease” and “Jaws” as the type of summer crowd-pleasers he sees the truck showcasing.

Donor Update

SIFF also held the final installment in a series of three donor updates at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 16, where Schweiss outlined several improvements to the organization’s financial health and capital improvements and teased some of its upcoming programming as it approaches its 30th anniversary.

“As we approach our 30th anniversary in 2024, we are excited to announce the creation of the ‘Imagine. Create. Achieve. Fund’ and seek 30 ‘angels’ to help us initiate this innovative and transformative endeavor,” the update stated.

SIFF’s goal is to raise $150,000 to provide programming that addresses social issues, workshops covering any topic in filmmaking and general programing. Currently, SIFF has raised $139,000 for the initiative and Schweiss anticipates that they will exceed their initial goal within the next few weeks.

The total budget for SIFF’s second theatre, the Alice Gill-Sheldon, which opened in 2022, was originally $1.75 million; however, that goal was also increased to create a $500,000 long-term building maintenance account, a restricted fund that can only be used for improvements to the theatres, upgrades to equipment and replacement of equipment.

“I can’t use that to buy envelopes, I can’t use that to clean the theatre,” Schweiss said. “We just use that when a light bulb went [off] or a laser light goes out, when maintenance needs to be done in the theatres. We plan on having that account be self-fulfilling every year. So just know you all made that happen, and we’re going to be here a long time.”