This is a privileged view inside an oft-critiqued but little studied historical movement, the "60s commune". (Most of which actually happened in the 70s, but "60s" is shorthand for hippy counterculture. Most of which also happened in the 70s.)
The angle is unique: two children of America's largest and most successful commune return to the scene of the crime as adults to revisit their early years, reconnect with happy memories, and make peace with some of the resentment they still feel about their unorthodox childhood. This is a rare, balanced treatment of the subject, from the perspective of younger participants not caught up in the ideology of their parents' generation, but who took the same wild ride all the same.
That alone makes this a valuable document. Most of what's available about communes was either produced by Baby Boomers on a nostalgia (or vengeance) kick, or by academics who take a cool, remote stance. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get real authority on the subject, both factual and emotional, from filmmakers who are simultaneously insiders and outsiders.
I'm from that era -- not a Baby Boomer, but a member of the next generation (X). I knew both the Boomers in their still-hip phase, and the criticism of them from my parent's 50s generation and the culture at large. (A view I somewhat held myself, at the time.) I was a teenager during the heyday of the commune, and had school friends who lived in communal circumstances. Much of what I saw in this movie reminded me of what I experienced of their home lives, positive and negative.
Now that I'm old I've become an armchair scholar of the commune movement, inspired partly by those memories of my youth, and never pass up source material on it. American Commune is the best commune doc I've seen. Given its unique origins, it's unlikely to be excelled.
The angle is unique: two children of America's largest and most successful commune return to the scene of the crime as adults to revisit their early years, reconnect with happy memories, and make peace with some of the resentment they still feel about their unorthodox childhood. This is a rare, balanced treatment of the subject, from the perspective of younger participants not caught up in the ideology of their parents' generation, but who took the same wild ride all the same.
That alone makes this a valuable document. Most of what's available about communes was either produced by Baby Boomers on a nostalgia (or vengeance) kick, or by academics who take a cool, remote stance. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get real authority on the subject, both factual and emotional, from filmmakers who are simultaneously insiders and outsiders.
I'm from that era -- not a Baby Boomer, but a member of the next generation (X). I knew both the Boomers in their still-hip phase, and the criticism of them from my parent's 50s generation and the culture at large. (A view I somewhat held myself, at the time.) I was a teenager during the heyday of the commune, and had school friends who lived in communal circumstances. Much of what I saw in this movie reminded me of what I experienced of their home lives, positive and negative.
Now that I'm old I've become an armchair scholar of the commune movement, inspired partly by those memories of my youth, and never pass up source material on it. American Commune is the best commune doc I've seen. Given its unique origins, it's unlikely to be excelled.