Dover's Guerilla Drive-In

There’s a new option for Friday night activities on the Seacoast. A couple of Dover movie buffs have organized an unconventional way to spend a summer evening. Using a few relatively inexpensive items—a car battery, an FM transmitter, and a projector, Bryan White and Larry Clow created the Sub Rosa Drive-In.

You might have thought the drive-in movie theater had gone the way of saddle shoes and soda fountains, but a new movement known as the “guerilla drive-in” has resurrected it, with a twist. Like other Guerilla Drive-Ins organized in Westchester, Penn. and Santa Cruz, Ca., Sub Rosa riffs on nostalgia, is steeped in a DIY aesthetic and organized like a flash mob. In order for audience members to know the location of the bootleg screening, they must subscribe to a mailing list. So far “Pump Up The Volume” and “Red Dawn” have screened, and “The Warriors” is scheduled for July 17.

However, following an article published in Foster’s Daily Democrat last week, Sub Rosa’s low profile may be compromised. With issues of legality on the table, its organizers are seeking donations for licensing, making it a little less “guerilla.” In any case, Sub Rosa allows an alternative way to see some classic cult films and B-movies on the Seacoast.

(Photo by Roger H. Goun via Flickr/Creative Commons)