In the late 1960s, a few free thinkers cobbled together donations, primarily from Hollywood, to buy 80 acres at the end of a dirt road in Siskiyou County, California: Big Bear Ranch, a commune with the motto “free land for free people.” Archival footage, photographs, documents and news articles, and interviews with people who lived or still live there tell the commune’s history: the cold first winter, women and men doing the same work, communal decision making, emerging environmental politics, free love and family formation, child rearing and memories of growing up there, a late 70′s crisis with a cult-like group that moved in, and assessment by those grown old of what Big Bear meant.

Commune (2005)
  • Rating: (181 votes)
  • Tagline:Peace and love are only half the story. »
  • Runtime:78 minutes
  • Director: Jonathan Berman
  • Country:USA
  • Actors:
    Himself - Public Defender
    Larry Bacon
    Herself
    Harriet Beinfeld
    Himself - Neighbor
    Hoss Bennett
    Herself - Geba's Daughter
    Allegra Brucker
    Himself
    Peter Coyote
    Herself
    Geba Greenberg
    Herself
    Catherine Guerra
    Himself
    Creek Hanauer
    Herself
    Tesilya Hanauer
    Himself
    Efrem Korngold
  • Genre:Documentary
  • Producer:
    Jonathan Berman
    producer  
  • Plot: In the late 1960s, a few free thinkers cobbled together donations, primarily from Hollywood, to buy 80 acres at the end of a dirt road in Siskiyou County, California: Big Bear Ranch, a commune with the motto "free land for free people." Archival footage, photographs, documents and news articles, and interviews with people who lived or still live there tell the commune's history: the cold first winter, women and men doing the same work, communal decision making, emerging environmental politics, free love and family formation, child rearing and memories of growing up there, a late 70's crisis with a cult-like group that moved in, and assessment by those grown old of what Big Bear meant. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
Commune
  • User's comment:The first accurate film portrayal of the 1960s counter-culture by kozure-okami

    This is the first, and as far as I can tell, the only documentary portrayal of the 1960s counter-culture as it actually existed. It is a sympathetic portrayal, completely devoid of the usual condescension, contempt, and hindsight revisionism.

    This is not a film about clothes or rock music. It is a film about people of serious intent who were willing to go the distance and who devoted their lives to one another in a large family of their own making. "Commune" is an important American historical document and must be seen by anyone wishing to understand what on earth was going on in this country during the late 1960s to mid-1970s.


  • Also known as: To koinovio (Greece - festival title),

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