Beverly Seckinger explores hippie elders and their family at a communal ranch in rural New Mexico in her documentary, 鈥淗ippie Family Values,鈥 which has its 蜜柚直播 premiere on .
How she came up with the idea:
Seckinger, a University of 蜜柚直播 professor, has been in a band, The Wayback Machine, for 20 years. The band鈥檚 core audience is the greater hippie diaspora of Southern 蜜柚直播 and New Mexico. After playing a gig at a communal ranch in New Mexico, Seckinger decided to begin shooting in 2006.
鈥淚 started getting to know all kinds of interesting hippie elders,鈥 she says. 鈥淧eople who are 10 to 15 years older than me who I had always kind of looked up to since I was a kid 鈥 the generation who did all kinds of idealistic, audacious things to create a better world.鈥 She says she hopes this documentary will debunk stereotypes of today鈥檚 hippies.
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A still from the film 鈥楬ippie Family Values.鈥
The film鈥檚 premiere:
The world premiere was at the Santa Fe Film Festival in February. Seckinger says the screening was small. There were fewer than 100 seats. 鈥淚t was a lot of fun,鈥 she says. 鈥淭here were representatives from three generations of women from the ranch there.鈥
Themes explored in the documentary:
Because the documentary was shot over 10 years, Seckinger was able to capture the changing political climate through three U.S. administrations. 鈥淭he values represented (by the commune members) are important counter-values to the kind of depressing developments on the ascendant in this country now 鈥攃onsumerism out of control, individualism, me first, racism and nativism,鈥 she says. 鈥淪o this is a place whose values are about sustainability. These are people who have been devoted to stewardship of the land and waters of this community for 40 years now. There are no flush toilets. They have compositing. They have gardens.鈥
Unexpected connection:
Seckinger says a large theme in the film involves issues associated with aging and dying. In the film, the mother of one in the older generation dies. 鈥淎fter we had edited that scene, my own mother died,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 had to learn tools for coping with that through accompanying Kate through the passing of her mom somehow through the film.鈥 She was also taking care of her partner鈥檚 mom while they were taking care of Kate鈥檚 mom. 鈥淚f you鈥檝e got to die, it鈥檚 a good death to be surrounded by caring people and not in an institutionalized environment.鈥
IF YOU GO聽
What:
When: 7 p.m. April 12 with a show from The Wayback Machine after the screening
Where: ,
Cost: $5
Maritza Cruz is a University of 蜜柚直播 journalism student apprenticing at the Star.
