The film opens in the year 2023 in the Nostradamus Islands. A librarian named Flux recalls a series of earthquakes that destroyed the continental United States. A totalitarian government took control of the United States following the disaster, but video footage from the pre-earthquake world was lost. The government sends Flux back in time to the Seattle, Washington, of 1999, to locate video footage of a riot that took place prior to the earthquake. He arrives in a society where telecommunications technology has replaced human interactions and where police operations are presented as television entertainment. He also discovers the government is putting forth footage of non-existent riots as a means of establishing law and order.[1][2]
Production
The Drivetime was produced on a budget of US$5,000 (currently $10,000[3]).[4]Rob Brezsny, author of the syndicated newspaper column "Real Astrology", wrote the text for the film's psychedelic infomercials.[4]
Alli shot The Drivetime in five different video formats—BETA SP, HI-8, VHS, C-VHS, SVHS—and in Super 8 film. The riot footage was culled from the September 10, 1994, riots in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood that protested alleged police brutality.[5]
Release
The Drivetime was first screened at the Velvet Elvis Arts Theater in Seattle in August 1995.[6] The film had a limited theatrical release and was later distributed on DVD.[5]
The Drivetime received mixed reviews. Phil Hall praised it in Wired as "one of the most chilling yet innovative cinematic essays on the flaws of today's technology-obsessed society"[1] while Steven Seid of the Pacific Film Archive praised the film's "provocative visuals" and noted it was "at its best when plying its 'televisionary' speculations about a spiritual resurgence that will overwhelm virtuality."[7] However, Robert Firsching, writing for the Amazing World of Cult Movies, dismissed The Drivetime as a “silly mess".[8]
