sub ro·sa
(rō’zə)
adv. In secret; privately or confidentially: held the meeting sub rosa.
[Latin sub rosā, under the rose (from the practice of hanging a rose over a meeting as a symbol of confidentiality) : sub, under + rosā, ablative of rosa, rose.
sub-ro’sa (səb-rō’zə) adj.
When I was four my parents took me to see The Empire Strikes Back at a drive-in theater in Vestal, New York. We saw several movies at this drive-in but Empire really sticks out to me. I knew nothing about Star Wars at this time. I was too young to have seen the first one when it came out and I wasn’t really tuned in to the fan hype so I went in pretty much a clean slate. Consider for a moment that you are four years old and watching The Galactic Empire storm the rebel base on Hoth, AT-ATs and all on a movie screen the size of your house. It’s a sense of awe and wonder that sticks with you throughout your entire life. Not only was I immediately sold on Star Wars, but I fell in love with the idea of rolling up to a movie in your car. This was a drive-in that actually showed B-Movies after the feature ended. At this particular showcase, they backed up Empire with the epic and bizarre Japanese space opera, Message From Space. My dad hated it. We left before it was over.
In 1933, Camden, New Jersey became the home of the first drive-in theater, simply called “Drive-In Theater”. By 1958 there were nearly 5000 drive-in theaters in the United States, a force big enough to take market share away from the traditional walled in theaters. Today there are less than 400. New Hampshire is home to two: one at Weirs Beach on Lake Winnipesaukee and one in Milford and as great as it is that we have two drive-ins in our state, neither of them captures the magic of the original experience.
The Sub Rosa Drive-In Theater is a clandestine organization; nomadic and strictly not for profit. We embody the DIY ethic of hacker/maker culture, not satisfied with the packaged goods that we are handed. We, the Sub Rosa Drive-In Theater, are only happy when we break those packaged goods down to their component parts and repurpose them to create a product that is of our own design and represents something that is more suited to our taste.
And we know that you’re out there, Seacoast New Hampshire. You’ve been waiting for this.
We will be bringing you, through the magic of ridiculously inexpensive home theater components, low power FM broadcasting equipment and portable power sources, a colorful menu of cult films as often as we can afford the licenses. Projected on the walls of spaces public and private. From the comfort of our own driver and passenger seats (and maybe the backseat, too) we will create an experience that captures, as closely as possible, the experience of the long gone drive-in theater, while building a community of drive-in, cult and movie fans. We’ll even tell you how we do it so that you can do it, too. So keep your eyes here and subscribe to the RSS feed because it’s the only way that you’ll ever find us.