Through the magic of Netflix I came across this amazing documentary last weekend. The Parking Lot Movie is a 79-minute meditation on capitalism, sociology, management, class war, and of course, cars.
The Corner Parking Lot in Charlottesville, VA, is staffed by unlikely attendants — graduate students in philosophy and theology, for example — which gives them and this movie a wonderfully entertaining lens through wjich to watch the collision of low-paying service sector jobs, higher education and spoiled undergrads who park their parents’ BMWs in the lot and try to skirt a $0.40 parking charge.
As a bonus gem, there are some songs by parking lot attendant, bluesy folksinger and UVA law student Mark Schottinger:
Update: Smitten by these songs, I emailed Mark Schottinger to find out if more of his music is available somewhere:
- The Parking Lot Movie Soundtrack has the two songs from the film, but unfortunately not the full version of Hellbound (iTunes)
- Three songs on Dawn of Man Productions.
- There’s an album on Bandcamp — my opinion, this one doesn’t sound as good as the other stuff.
- YouTube, search for Mark Schottinger (also see YouTube video above).
Martin Remy 