The Guerilla Drive-In returns, bringing free movies back to unlikely — and sometimes hidden — Santa Cruz locations

An old theater is back in action on Friday. 

It’s not the Nickelodeon, nor is it the old drive-in off of Soquel Drive, but it will undoubtedly conjure up some fond memories.

Some might remember watching Terry Gilliam’s bizarre, dystopian genre-bender “Brazil” on the side of a warehouse on Coral Street. Or “Linda Linda Linda,” a Japanese coming-of-age film about a cover band made up of teenage girls while sitting on the riverbank under the Soquel Avenue bridge.

The Guerilla Drive-In, a collective of local movie lovers who host pop-up-style movie screenings in public spaces and urban areas throughout Santa Cruz, is back following a lengthy hiatus.

The collective started screening films around 2002, said Stacey Falls, a member of the group since 2005. The group hasn’t held a public screening in more than a decade, but has continued holding smaller, more private screenings at the downtown SubRosa community space in the years since. She said the most recent screening hosted as a collective was in 2014.

Falls said the collective used to frequently set up on the Westside near the railroad tracks off of Fair Avenue. The property owner was fine with the gatherings, Falls said, but the construction of the New Leaf Community Markets grocery store directly adjacent to the location made a pop-up theater difficult, and finding other locations to host screenings undisturbed was hard as well.

“At the time, people were really involved in SubRosa and wanted to make that a more vibrant space, so we started putting our energy into showing movies there,” she said, adding that other members of the group began to put more energy into the “Occupy” movement.

While screening films at SubRosa kept the collective alive, it wasn’t quite the same.

“I think for some of us, that felt a little less powerful, because it felt like we were just showing movies to friends,” Falls said. “We kind of stopped meeting as a collective and it became a thing that SubRosa might do with the equipment.”

But now, the Guerilla Drive-In is making its official return. The group is still finalizing the schedule and list of films it plans to show, but the philosophy for picking movies is the same as it always was — they have to be subversive and good.

“Those are literally the two criteria,” Falls said.

Falls made the call to get the project up and running again, which she said was inspired by two main things: social isolation during and after the pandemic and gentrification.

“On one hand, there were communitywide things that shut down [during COVID], but people also creatively built community in unexpected ways,” she said. “I really felt this desire to reconnect with the people and projects that bring various parts of the community together.”

On gentrification, Falls is mainly referencing the increased cost of living and how expensive it can be to have a simple night out with friends. “It’s trying to find cheap or free ways to socialize and feeling inspired by things like Afrobeats [Nite], and how many different people come out for these kinds of free, communitywide events. There’s still this desire in Santa Cruz to come together in noncommercial ways to celebrate each other through things like dance or movies.”

The collective’s movies are free to attend, but moviegoers can make donations at the screenings. Or they can also just bring some popcorn or snacks to share with their fellow adventurous cinephiles.

The group has updated its equipment, too, going fully digital and using laptops to project movies rather than having to wrestle with VHS and DVD players and hunt for the movie at one of the now-defunct video stores in the city.

“It’s funny because how you find movies has changed, but I don’t think it’s any easier,” Falls said with a laugh, adding that the members now have to scour various streaming services instead of video-store shelves.

Local interest in the group is one thing that appears to have not changed, though. Falls said she recalls 200-plus people gathering for movies on the Westside more than a decade ago. Despite the lengthy hiatus, the collective’s Instagram page has already amassed nearly 1,000 followers even though it’s been active since only late April.

On the group’s post announcing its return, commenters expressed their enthusiastic support.

“I feel like this is such the right time. Thank you and yay!” one wrote.

“Highschool memories unlocked jeeez,” wrote another.

SubRosa also applauded the return: “Looking forward to the new schedule! Hooray for GDI!”

Members of the collective share that same excitement, but also feel some nerves. They don’t want to have screenings shut down or disturbed, and Falls finds it frustrating that public spaces often close at sunset.

She recalls speaking to a couple from Germany attending one of the screenings years ago, who couldn’t fathom the idea of parks closing at dark. But now, Falls hopes that the first half of the current decade has reminded people why low-barrier human connections are so important.

“I’m hoping for the goodness of people and the desire for community,” she said. “We’re hoping that people getting together and doing something fun will just be embraced now that COVID has reminded us about the need for people to come together.”

The collective’s first screening will be on the San Lorenzo riverbank beneath the Soquel Avenue bridge, by the Royal Taj restaurant, at dusk on Friday. It is showing Lukas Moodysson’s “We Are The Best!”, a film about three misfit girls in 1980s Stockholm, Sweden, who form a punk band despite having no instruments. Bring snacks, blankets and your movie-loving friends.

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