We are re-releasing Commune on its 20th Anniversary because of the urgent struggles in Trump’s America, wherein people are seeking solutions of every kind to an increasing authoritarianism. As feminist activist Carol Hanisch wrote in 1969, ‘the personal is political,’ and nothing is more personal than how we live and the who, what, and where of the place we call home.
In 1968, two hippies hiking near Mt. Shasta in Northern California stumbled across an unlikely property for sale: an abandoned goldmine and surrounding land, 300 acres for $22,000. Fueled by contributions from the Doors, the Monkees, Frank Zappa and others, they bought the property and named it Black Bear Ranch. It quickly became the prototypical 1960s commune, with the motto “Free Land for Free People.” Utopian communities have always been a part of the United States, but in the 60’s and 70’s their audacious goal was to reshape the world with free love and common property – creating a revolutionary movement that would spread to the rest of society.
Newly restored and featuring interviews with several Black Bear alumni, including actor/activist Peter Coyote, Commune is the first modern documentary to deal with communal living and cults. With a wealth of photographs and home movies, Commune offers a candid look into the joys and difficulties of communal life – including free love, nude farming, survival in the wilderness, multiple-parent childrearing, strife, jealousy and sometimes even endangered lives. In our modern high-tech world, we face a plague of loneliness and growing interest in revolutionizing the way we live. Is coming together the cure? Or perhaps, as Sartre wrote ‘hell is – other people!’
Paper Phoenix ink 