commune

The filmmaker will participate in a Q&A’s after the 5:45 and 8 o’clock screenings on Friday the 10th, after the 3:30 and 5:45 screenings on Saturday the 11th and after the 1:15 screening on Sunday the 12th.

Buy a ticket to any opening weekend screening and your ticket stub will get you into the November 10th after-party at the Echo Curio gallery at 1519 Sunset Boulevard.

During the radical fervor of the early 1970s, utopian communities dotted the American landscape. They aimed to reshape the world with "free love" and common property, and they excited controversy and fear amongst local residents across the country. Though the idea of communes is now often relegated to a naive past, Berman discovers a successful and lasting, if controversial, legacy at the influential Black Bear Ranch, in Siskiyou County, California.

Premised on the idea of "Free Land for Free People," and financed by the largesse of Hollywood rock stars, the founders of Black Bear bought land deep in the wilderness and raised a rough-hewn homestead. Over the years, hundreds would join the community, and life would be complicated by conflicts about the role of women, child-rearing, proper communalist behavior, the FBI, and most traumatically, a child-snatching cult.

With archival footage from the early days, and the present-day views of Black Bear members and their offspring, "Commune" is a revealing look at how our most basic choices about family, work, and the nature of our relationships send powerful and lasting shock waves through the fabric of society. Featuring herbalist Michael Tierra, who is credited with rediscovering Echinacea, internationally renowned painter Elsa Marley, and actor Peter Coyote.

" They threw themselves body in soul into group living...the '60s gets its most honest appraisal yet. A keen vet docu-maker's eye and a chronicler's compassion lends pic real resonance."
-Robert Koehler, Variety, Los Angeles, CA

"...rings true in our troubled times."
-Sarah Jo Marks, International Documentary Magazine

"A clear-eyed look back at the heyday of the Black Bear Ranch commune in Siskiyou County, Calif., by articulate former members, including actor Peter Coyote." -Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"Focuses on family values, loyalty, and a deep love for one another....open and frank" Kellie Hwang, Seattle Weekly

"A comprehensive study of a small-scale revolution that succeeded almost in spite of itself." Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times

“A breezy, informal history of a long-running California commune begun in the summer of 1968 and still in existence, offers the fascinating spectacle of observing people then and now.” Stephen Holden, NY Times

“Its residents spent most of their time buck naked…fun.” V.A. Musetto, NY Post

“Amid the dozens of documentaries made about various aspects of '60s society and culture,
"Commune" stands out for its ambiguity, honesty and sheer human clarity…an extraordinary collage.” Andrew O'Hehir, Salon

“A close examination of a quintessential '60s phenomenon that speaks volumes about the
attitudes and experiences that shaped the decade...captivating.” Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide

“Defiant idealism..” Noel Murray, The Onion A/V club

“A trip!” Jack Matthews, Daily News

“Celebrating the desire to immerse oneself in a collective, world-changing enterprise..” J. Hoberman, Village Voice


see the trailer here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fx8cPxUDl3g

full NY Times Review of Commune Friday Nov. 3rd, 2006

“Just a Hardy Bunch of Settlers Who Left America and Moved to California By Stephen Holden

“⁄Commune,◊ a breezy, informal history of the Black Bear Ranch, a long-running California commune begun in the summer of 1968 and still in existence, offers the fascinating spectacle of observing people then and now.

“This loose-jointed collection of reminiscences by several dozen people who lived on the ranch ‹ hippies and political idealists who ⁄moved there to get away from America,◊ as one original member puts it ‹ is crammed with pictures and old home movies. Juxtaposed with the vintage material are interviews with the same people today.

“However weather beaten they appear, they still have a light in their eyes, and they exude the hardy spirit of pioneers who are older and wiser but unbowed. As they look back with pride, amusement and sadness, it is obvious that their experiences on the ranch profoundly shaped their lives. (Occupied today by a handful of younger people, the ranch is now a land trust owned communally by everyone who has spent a winter there.)

“⁄Free Land for Free People◊ was the motto of this utopian community established near Mount Shasta in Siskiyou County, in Northern California.
The members raised the $22,000 to buy the property by traveling to Los Angeles and, using emotional blackmail, pressuring movie stars and rock musicians to donate to their cause.

“Michael Tierra recalls their pitch: ⁄Youfire making money off our lifestyle. Itfis time you gave back some to us.◊ He also ruefully remembers pulling an outrageous prank at the home of the actor James Coburn. After smoking dope with the star, he poured gasoline into a fountain in front of his house, then draped it with an American flag which he set on fire while singing ⁄The Star-Spangled Banner.◊

“Elsa Marley, who established the commune with her husband, Richard, a former union organizer in New York, remembers that a dozen people were expected to live there, but 40 showed up, and the ranks quickly swelled to 100. It barely survived its first winter, an unusually harsh one. The residents in the area regarded the ranch with deep suspicion. One amusing anecdote involves a police raid that uprooted a tomato patch that was presumed to be marijuana.

“As the commune established itself, men and women worked side by side, chopping and hauling wood. Much of whatever money circulated came from womenfis welfare checks. But reality intruded on the dream of perfect harmony in countless ways. There is the story of the debate over a cow and whether to milk it or eat it. (In a group vote the eaters won out over the milkers by 4 to 1).

“On a more fundamental level the communefis scorn for the ⁄bourgeois decadence◊ of couples (for a short period no one was allowed to sleep with anyone for more than two nights in a row) clashed with basic human nature.
As the actor Peter Coyote, a frequent visitor to Black Bear, recalls, a mood of ⁄murder over the orange juice◊ hung in the air on the mornings after the bed swapping.

“Militantly enforced free love didnfit last long. Couples paired off and had babies, and those who didnfit want their children raised communally moved away. The children born to those who stayed developed their own separate culture, and when they grew older, some rebelled. Most of those who speak in the film seem to have turned out well.

“Weirdos came and went. The chroniclefis most bizarre episode is the story of Shiva Lila, a nomadic cult of acid-taking, baby-worshiping hippies looking for the perfect place to bring up children. The group, which one person compares to the James Gang, was ousted when 100 people mobilized and demanded they leave. The cult moved on to the Philippines and then to India, where several children died in a diphtheria epidemic.

“⁄Commune,◊ which was produced and directed by Jonathan Berman, is shadowed by the death of Mr. Marley, who, aware of his impending mortality, is shown holding a book titled ⁄Making Friends With Death◊ and speaking in the tone of a wistful Zen philosopher. ⁄I wish I had known I was dying 50 years ago,◊ he muses. That remark distills the nostalgic mood of a documentary that forcefully reminds you of the passage of time.

“Opens today in Manhattan.

“Produced and directed by Jonathan Berman; directors of photography, Alan Deutsch, Tamas Bojtor, Rob Vanalkemade and Mr. Berman; edited by Marisa Simpson and Michael Taylor; music by Elliott Sharp; released by Five Points Media. At the Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, Greenwich Village.”