COMMUNE-20th ANNIVERSARY SCREENINGS WITH Q&A & SPECIAL GUESTS

Documentary, 78 minutes, USA. Begun in the summer of 1968 near Mt. Shasta in California, Black Bear Ranch was a utopian experiment in anarchism attracting counterculture anarchists, hippies and activists seeking “to get away from America.” A dozen people were expected to live there, but 40 showed up, then it quickly swelled to 100. They braved a brutal winter, constant negotiation over how to live, and a radical cult that threatened their very existence. Celebrating its 20th anniversary with a sparkling restoration, COMMUNE grapples with a big challenge: utopia and how to create it. The New York Times called COMMUNE “engaging and illuminating” and Variety found the film as “a compelling document of a radical experiment.”