Lake Elmo drive-in is a star of Woodbury-raised filmmaker's movie

If you missed it when it had its first showing in September, the movie "Bobby's Intermission" will make a return engagement Dec. 11 at 6 p.m. at the Woodbury 10 Theatre. The family comedy from first-time filmmaker Justin Atkinson, a Woodbury native, tells the story of a young man trying to get into film school.

It was shot in the summer of 2022 at the shuttered Vali-Hi Drive-In, and Atkinson said the movie is as much about the characters as it is a love letter to the drive-in movie theater he frequented as a kid.

"The response from the community has been overwhelming and it's because people love the Vali-Hi Drive-In and they haven't been able to go back there," said Atkinson.

Atkinson said the first two showings in September were sold out, and were the highest grossing films of the day for the Woodbury 10. He hopes to enter the film in the Twin Cities Film Festival next year after just missing the submission deadline this year.

The owner of a video production company called Justin Films, Atkinson said he worked on the script for "Bobby's Intermission" for about 10 years. He had convinced himself that he would need a big budget and equipment that was beyond his reach. Then he turned the project on its head and instead of thinking of the reasons he couldn't do it, he thought of the reasons he could. Soon he was auditioning cast members at the R.H. Stafford Library in Woodbury. He shot it for $7,000. The film stars local actors David Griffith, Paul Vang, Adriana Token, Rommy Romero, Bradley Belich, and Kari Layland.

Atkinson said the child version of himself would "lose his mind" to see his own film playing at his local theater.

"This has been a dream I have dreamed about making a movie my entire life," said Atkinson.