| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (52 min. 17 sec.) ; 315499544 bytes |
| Summary |
"The strain of mysticism and utopianism can only work in small groups. You can't really have 50,000 people living like they were in Haight Ashbury." - William Hedgepeth, undercover journalist.This is the story of San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district during the summer of 1967, from its utopian beginnings to the chaos, filth and widespread drug use that ultimately signaled the end.Written and directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco, it begins by explaining the growth of the hippie movement, which found a home in the city's low-rent Haight Ashbury sector. It was born of idealistic youths who'd grown up with post-WWII affluence but were now dealing with Vietnam, racism and the threat of nuclear annihilation. It made them question whether material affluence was the only way to live. As the movement grew, word went out that San Francisco would see a huge influx of devotees during the summer break. It turned out to be the largest migration of young people in America's history with somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 youths arriving in Haight Ashbury."Everybody had a different entrance point," explains San Francisco music critic Joel Selvin. "Some people came in because of the sexual liberation prospect. Some people came in because of the appeal of the music. Some people came in because they were angry and scared about the draft and the war. But once you were in that vortex, once you were in that swirling miasma of social and personal change, all the doors were open."Summer of Love tracks the positives and the negatives, through eyewitness accounts from former hippies, a journalist who posed as one, annoyed Haight Ashbury locals and the local cops trying to cope with the onslaught of people. While the movement promoted the exploration of new horizons, love, personal growth, mysticism, community, generosity and authenticity, it also brought housing and food shortages, drug problems, STDs and hundreds of runaway children, some as young as 13, living on the streets."I don't think the summer of love left any blueprints behind on how to build a better world," one former hippie says. "It was much more a showcase for happiness, for enjoyment, for freedom. But if you probe the underlying values you can perhaps see the seeds of a better social order than the one we're living in now."Yet it all came to an end, within one season. Find out why on Summer of Love. (From the US, in English) (Documentary) |
| Event |
Broadcast 2011-12-27 at 20:30:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: PG |
| Subject |
Drug abuse and crime.
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Female friendship.
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Love stories.
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Manners and customs.
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Single mothers -- Social conditions.
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Utopias.
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California -- San Francisco.
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Streaming video
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| Author |
Stiers, David Ogden, cast
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Berg, Peter, contributor
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Brown, Willie, contributor
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Coyote, Peter, contributor
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Ellen Kasper, Mary, contributor
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Gerrans, Art, contributor
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Goldhaft, Judy, contributor
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Hedgepeth, William, contributor
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King Yunker, Claudia, contributor
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McCalister, Ruth, contributor
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Morningstar, Phil, contributor
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Perry, Charles, contributor
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Roszak, Theodore, contributor
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Selvin, Joel, contributor
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Snyder, Virginia, contributor
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Stein, Sandi, contributor
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Thelin, Ron, contributor
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