Our beloved regular location alongside the railroad tracks (from GDI instagram)

Our beloved regular location on the Westside off of Fair Ave alongside the railroad tracks. A winery yard was behind us and we would jump the fence to plug into power - eventually they would feed us an extension cord through the chain link fence (very kind of them!). 

All of that is gone and a grocery store is there now. Site no longer appropriate for showings. Favorite memories from that location? Anyone remember the jeering section? 

Now we are actively looking for new locations - any suggestions? Remember the perfect site by day, imagining a screening at dark, might be flooded by light pollution (so helpful to check out at night!).

And did you know that GDI has an instagram page? If you use this particular social media give it a look (this post was originally there). https://www.instagram.com/sc_gdi 

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SANTA CRUZ GUERILLA DRIVE-IN is an outdoor movie theater under the stars that springs up unexpectedly in the fields and industrial wastelands. Beyond showing great free movies and bringing a broad community together, part of our mission is reclaiming public space and transforming our urban environment.

THE LIST! (from GDI instagram)

THE LIST! In previous years of the Guerilla Drive-In project we had a massive list of films that we would also add to before each season. So when we were putting together the schedule we had a lot from which to choose. And we are putting together a new list for our 2026 Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In schedule! Any recommendations?

And massive thanks to Wes Modes for being such a wonderful rememberer of the history of things (list from https://modes.io/santa-cruz-guerilla-drive-in/) and collaborator on this and many other projects in the past in Santa Cruz. Wes is now in Cincinnati and doing things there! And Wes has also supported from afar! 

And did you know that GDI has an instagram page? If you use this particular social media give it a look (this post was originally there). https://www.instagram.com/sc_gdi 

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SANTA CRUZ GUERILLA DRIVE-IN is an outdoor movie theater under the stars that springs up unexpectedly in the fields and industrial wastelands. Beyond showing great free movies and bringing a broad community together, part of our mission is reclaiming public space and transforming our urban environment. 

A blast from the past! (from GDI instagram)

Was this when we projected the Subversive Shorts Film Festival on the top portion of the building next to the corporate movie theater in downtown Santa Cruz? We instructed people to bring radios and had a low power transmitter for the film’s audio to get around the repressive downtown ordinance against amplified sound. 

We used to compile the subversive shorts on VHS tapes and begin each showing with these and then have an intermission and then main feature. VCRs aren’t a part of our gear anymore. Perhaps we will find another way to show subversive shorts for our upcoming GDI season!

And did you know that GDI has an instagram page? If you use this particular social media give it a look (this post was originally there). https://www.instagram.com/sc_gdi 

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SANTA CRUZ GUERILLA DRIVE-IN is an outdoor movie theater under the stars that springs up unexpectedly in the fields and industrial wastelands. Beyond showing great free movies and bringing a broad community together, part of our mission is reclaiming public space and transforming our urban environment.

Look for 2026 schedule May - September!

The Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In is back! Consider it a prolonged hiatus. We are developing a late-Spring / Summer / early-Autumn schedule. More information to come! 

A reminder: SANTA CRUZ GUERILLA DRIVE-IN is an outdoor movie theater under the stars that springs up unexpectedly in the fields and industrial wastelands. Beyond showing great free movies and bringing a broad community together, part of our mission is reclaiming public space and transforming our urban environment.

Begun in 2002 with over 200 showings and more than 15 locations, always free! (last scheduled series of screenings 2010-11 Winter series - then sporadic individual screenings, often at SubRosa: a community space, but not always specifically part of GDI - although always with GDI tech-support!). 

More information about SubRosa at - https://www.subrosaproject.org/ 

Hooray! We look forward to seeing you under the stars around town enjoying films and sharing space together. If you have ideas about other events that can spring forth after film screenings that you’d like to host (ex: Midnight Mystery Rides) please let us know! Updated contact information coming soon too!

- the Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In collective

Fri July 27th, 7pm: Holding Out - Housing is a Human Need! Film Series #1 (at SubRosa)

Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In yet again is in support of this film screening happening at SubRosa.  

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Friday, July 27th, 7pm

At SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue

downtown Santa Cruz

Holding Out - 

Housing is a Human Need! Film Series #1

Holding Out - With an eviction crisis reaching epic proportions in San Francisco, the city's residents must navigate changing landscapes and communities, while also facing the loss of their homes. Using storytelling to explore themes of memory, history, and community, Holding Out follows four embattled tenants as they reflect on their lives and fight eviction. Questioning the relationship between developers and City Hall, Holding Out exposes what is at stake, and who stands to lose, in San Francisco's determined quest to assert its role as the tech capital of the world.

Filmmaker Rebecca Gourevitch will be present for the after film discussion.

No one turned away for lack of funds! Donations accepted to SUR and Subrosa Community space // https://www.facebook.com/events/175871593282925/ // co-hosted by Students United with Renters https://www.facebook.com/SURucsc/

More info on Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In is at

 https://www.facebook.com/scgdi/

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SubRosa is a collectively run anarchist community space, a place to meet others and challenge our assumptions and act on our passions. We strive to create a vibrant environment for events, classes, meetings, organizing, performance, art, studying and more. SubRosa also offers radical literature for sale, and houses the Anarchist Lending Library. We welcome folks to join us in fostering an environment free from coercion, sexism, homophobia, racism, and other hierarchies.

SubRosa is in downtown Santa Cruz, CA which is unceeded land of the Awaswas-speaking Ohlone people.

http://www.subrosaproject.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/subrosaproject and https://www.instagram.com/subrosa_sc/

And SubRosa is part of a larger community center called The Hub.  Check out the Hub's facebook page regarding other Hub projects!  https://www.facebook.com/santacruzhub/

Tangerine / Saturday, July 7th, 9pm At SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave

Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In yet again is in support of these film screenings and events happening at SubRosa.

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Tangerine  

Saturday, July 7th, 9pm

At SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave

Free screening of masterpiece Tangerine, the realest movie you'll ever consume with your eyeballs. Hilarious, frantic, dark, deep, and centered on the friendship between two sex workers in LA. Played by trans actresses Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor!

Will be played outdoors so bring yer comfy necessities! Free foods will be provided! Put on by The Diversity Center! With support from the Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In!

All ages (movie is rated R) // Dry space // Free! // https://www.facebook.com/events/1794311440648478/

More info on Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In is at  https://www.facebook.com/scgdi/ 

***And Friday, July 6th, 7:30 - 10:30pm at SubRosa come for the art show opening... She/He/They: Introspective Studies Through Photography and Mixed Media of Queer Portraits. https://www.facebook.com/events/398522080639717/

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SubRosa is a collectively run anarchist community space, a place to meet others and challenge our assumptions and act on our passions. We strive to create a vibrant environment for events, classes, meetings, organizing, performance, art, studying and more. SubRosa also offers radical literature for sale, and houses the Anarchist Lending Library. We welcome folks to join us in fostering an environment free from coercion, sexism, homophobia, racism, and other hierarchies.

http://www.subrosaproject.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/subrosaproject and https://www.instagram.com/subrosa_sc/

And SubRosa is part of a larger community center called The Hub.  Check out the Hub's facebook page regarding other Hub projects!  https://www.facebook.com/santacruzhub/

Sat- film screening & performance // Sun- magazine release & film too

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Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In yet again is in support of these film screenings and events happening at SubRosa.  Come to SubRosa on Saturday for original films and performance and on Sunday an event to celebrate the print release of an online magazine and the screening of a film.  All the details are below!!!

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At SubRosa, 703 Pacific Avenue

downtown Santa Cruz

-Saturday, June 16th, 8 - 11pm: HOLY SHIT : Films + Performance by Lyra Hill

A rich, velvety evening of stimulating entertainment for the eyes, ears, hearts and minds. Come and see hypnotic, colorful images projected on real film. Listen carefully to complex lyrics (catch the jokes), simple drum beats, and soothing synthesized tones. Sense the space around you and feel it fill with fantastic, fleeting phantasms. Bring your friends and have a time.

Doors at 7:30, Show at 8pm. $7 donation, no one turned away for lack of funds! Show with support from the Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In.

Lyra Hill, artist and California native who has never before performed in Santa Cruz, will share some original songs, and the following:

*Breathe With Cube (2016), 12 minutes, 3D 16mm film and performance // Breathe With Cube is an optical illusion and live comedy trance intended to prepare an audience for total immersion into a cinema space, the 'white cube,' or the 'black box.' The audience fixates on a slowly pulsing cube which grows, shrinks, seems to stand still and split apart. This performance invites participation through vocal repetition and deliberate, expansive use of the imagination.

**It All Depends (On You) (2017-ongoing), performance // It All Depends (On You) is a site-and-audience-specific series of performances designed to provoke an audience into participating in some outsized emotion befitting the time and place. It might be silly, sudden, sad, scary, or something else. IAD(OY) was first performed on the roof of the Greek Film Archive in Athens, as part of documenta 14.

***Uzi's Party (2017), 30 minutes, 16mm film with sound. // In this experimental teen dramedy, five young women gather for a Ouija party on the anniversary of an important death. They gossip, bicker, and flirt until somebody becomes possessed. Uzi's Party was shot entirely in-camera on 16mm film and includes extensive analog special effects. Starring Jojo Hill.

Lyra Hill is an artist, educator, and radical priestess who specializes in creating celluloid films, alternative comic books, and immersive, multimedia experiences. She has been organizing rituals since 2004. She created, hosted and ran BRAIN FRAME, the legendary performative-comix reading series, from 2011-2014. She has screened, published, and performed in Canada, Mexico, Scotland, England, Australia, Italy, Greece and across the USA. In 2016 NewCity Magazine named her "Best Urban Ritualist." She currently lives in Los Angeles where she curates and hosts MULTI CULT, a ritual variety show.

https://www.facebook.com/events/169757510536003/

-Sunday, June 17th, 5 - 8pm: Blind Field Special Issue Release Party

From the facebook post:  "After publishing more than sixty texts in multiple genres, Blind Field is releasing its first special issue in print. Our print issue, End/And: Gender, Labor, and Unending Times, will be on sale at our release party. Join us on Sunday, June 18, from 5-8PM at SubRosa (703 Pacific Ave), for readings from several Blind Field authors, snacks, discussion, and a screening of Lizzie Borden's 1983 film Born in Flames.

Blind Field: A Journal of Cultural Inquiry is an online journal of anti-capitalist and feminist writings about culture and contemporary struggles that started in Santa Cruz in 2015."

https://www.facebook.com/events/200385033939670/

More info on Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In is at

 https://www.facebook.com/scgdi/ 

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SubRosa is a collectively run anarchist community space, a place to meet others and challenge our assumptions and act on our passions. We strive to create a vibrant environment for events, classes, meetings, organizing, performance, art, studying and more. SubRosa also offers radical literature for sale, and houses the Anarchist Lending Library. We welcome folks to join us in fostering an environment free from coercion, sexism, homophobia, racism, and other hierarchies.

http://www.subrosaproject.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/subrosaproject and https://www.instagram.com/subrosa_sc/

And SubRosa is part of a larger community center called The Hub.  Check out the Hub's facebook page regarding other Hub projects!  https://www.facebook.com/santacruzhub/