Drive-In movie experience coming to Abbeville

With movie theaters closing due to COVID-19, Baton Rouge filmmaker Aaron L. Williams teamed up with Abbeville’s Lighthouse For Jesus Ministries for a powerful two-day Drive-In movie experience.
“The Perfect Mate,” which was shot last August in multiple areas around Baton Rouge, is Williams’ latest work, starring many familiar names in the acting industry.
The romantic comedy stars Lawrence Hilton Jacobs from Welcome Back Kotter, and the Jackson 5 Movie, Jackee Harry from 227 and Sister Sister, Chico Benymon from Half and Half and a lot of Disney movies, Brittany Lucio from Everything But a Man and Shreveport native K.D. Aubert from Friday after Next and CSI NY and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The movie will be released through Drive-In movie events, most of them taking place at churches. Upcoming dates so far include Sept. 3-5 at Spirit and Life International Ministry, 704 Olinde St., New Roads, and Sept. 11-12 at Lighthouse For Jesus Ministries, 1921 Wildcat Drive, Abbeville.
There will be car hoppers to bring concessions to vehicles. A large 40 foot screen and a 200-pound projector will be set up.
Director Aaron L Williams has also teamed up with authors Larkin and Shirley Weber to bring the relationship bootcamp kit.
The movie is a romantic comedy that the director Aaron L. Williams used well-known names and also a local talent to help put this film together. Williams had plans for a complete release before the coronavirus pandemic upended the film industry, though he still plans to reach the nation, one area at a time.
Williams said that the main goal is to reach as many people as possible with this movie, “Putting it together about three nights per week, until the end of the year is a goal of mine; it’s a lot of work, but the team I have is solid and strong,” he said, “and then we travel the country with it.”
The forty-year-old director had a strong urge to bring family entertainment to everyone after searching for a birthday card for his daughter about two years ago. Williams tells The Advocate in Baton Rouge that every card he read had some sexual joke or something highly inappropriate. “I started to realize that television and films are doing pretty much the same thing,” he said, “It takes something where you think it’s going to be a fun movie, and everything is perverted.”
After searching for that card, his mission was to have so much positive content to choose from. “ I understand that there are certain subjects that should be addressed with youngsters, and these are real issues, but they’re presented in a way that is just about that, so my goal is not to justify wrongdoing, but to show people what morals are,” said Williams.
Williams stated that he doesn’t preach the Bible to those viewing his projects and that the goal is to pull those genres and just add moral grounding inside of it and to stay away from profanity. With “The Perfect Mate,” he says he doesn’t get ‘too preachy’ because it’s more than a faith-based film.
“My goal is to not only make faith films but to make movies that have positive and moral standards that a lot of Hollywood has gotten away from that 100%,” he said. Williams owns Digital Media Production House and attended Woodlawn High School and LSU.
The tour started on Aug. 20 and every weekend and will be traveling from city-to-city and state-to-state to bring hope, laughter, and a night of faith and fellowship. If you would like your church or location to drive-in movie tour contact Shirley Weber at 225-933-5816 or theperfectmatemovie.com.