Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

Jamaica drive-in needed a concrete screen

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Interconnectedness | Ajahn Brahm | 29-06-2007

1 min read

Content note: gun violence

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

Drivin movies now that they used to have I'm not sure if there's still any Drivin movies here in Perth but big screens and you go in the car and you just watch the movie however he was very um surprised to see the screen this huge screen it wasn't like a cloth screen like they have in you know Australia or United States it was a concrete scen scen really thick and it's a huge and he couldn't help asking why have they got a concrete screen you know to show a a movie for people in cars it must have cost a fortune and his host said yeah it did cost a fortune they explained why they had to build this concrete screen cuz Jamaica is a very violent ter a violent country an up country sometimes there's a lot of violence and everyone has guns and apparently this town was noted for its violence and most of the people in the town the sort of movies they like were cops and robers and and Western where there's lots of gunfights but what actually happened that when there was a gunfight on the screen that people in the cars would get their guns out and join in and if they didn't like the sheriff they shoot the sheriff if they didn't like the cop they shoot the cop a true story and the owner of this driving movie theater had gone through so many cloth screens and got all shot up by the audience that in the end he decides to bite the bullet and actually put a concrete screen up there

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 26:03 (to 27:52)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

A Jamaican drive-in, Ajahn Brahm says, had to build a concrete screen because audiences kept shooting the villains. We laugh, but we get swept into films and football too, some fans even dying of heart attacks during a match. Enjoy the show, but learn to disconnect. It's only a story, and your heart matters more.

In brief (our summary)

Visitor to a Jamaican drive-in wonders why the screen is thick concrete; locals shoot along with cops-and-robbers / Westerns — cloth screens kept getting shot up, so the owner built concrete.

Teaching point

Interactive cinema, audience-style — violence writes the architecture.

When this story may help

  • travel stories
  • gun culture

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Interconnectedness | Ajahn Brahm | 29-06-2007 · 2007-07-05 · ▶ watch from 26:03 to 27:52 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'Drivin'/'cops and robers' = drive-in / robbers.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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