Far Out: Life On & After the Commune

Vintage Days Special: Far Out: Life On & After the Commune with Q&A after the film with director Charles Light and others.

In 1968, a group of radical journalists leave the city and politics to live communally as organic farmers. The film examines their lives and return to the political world and how the commune became a community.

The film traces fifty years in the lives of a group of New England writers, activists and artists. In 1968, in the middle of a left wing faction fight, a group of radical journalists left New York City for the country where they became pioneers in the back-to-the-land and organic farming movement.

In 1973, when a giant nuclear power plant was planned nearby, they became active opponents. In a dramatic act of civil disobedience, Sam Lovejoy, a commune member, toppled a 500 foot weather tower on the site. He turned himself in and after a trial that drew national attention was acquitted.

The group became leaders in the burgeoning anti-nuclear movement. The film tracks the dramatic battles over atomic power in Seabrook, NH and elsewhere. In 1979, they teamed up with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash and other committed rock stars to produce five nights of sold out concerts at Madison Square Garden and a massive rally.

Blending contemporary interviews and a remarkable trove of original archival footage, Far Out is lively, humorous, inspiring and irreverent. The film is vital, telling the history but hewing to the universal themes of how we grapple–over a lifetime–with politics, relationships, morality, spirituality, civic engagement and finding our home.