Our first public screening is set for February 11th at the Santa Fe Film Festival. Lots of HFV participants will be in attendance. Excited to unveil this labor of love at long last. Thanks to ALL who made it possible!

Thanks to additional funds raised through our Final Push campaign on Indiegogo, we spent a busy summer completing the film.

Editor Jim Klein and I traveled to Austin TX in June for our sound mix at Soundcrafter, a premier post audio facility. Then in August, I spent a week in San Francisco working with online editor Robert Arnold on color grading, titles and credits and other finishing processes. Now that the film is complete, we’re in the midst of producing DVDs, and also have a cool new trailer, edited by the fabulous Shirley Thompson.

The film has been submitted to a bunch of festivals, so stay tuned for news of a screening near you in the coming months.

If you are a professor, or know one who might be interested in using the film in class, it is now available to educational institutions through New Day Films, where you can also see what academics in a wide variety of fields are saying about Hippie Family Values.

A thousand thanks to our generous supporters for making it all possible!

I am thrilled to report that the film is nearly done!   You can see the first 10 minutes HERE.

Kids in Hippie Family Values

Our objective now is to raise funds to cover the sound mix, color correction, titles and credits, and other technical processes necessary to prepare the film for its debut. So we have launched a Final Push Indiegogo campaign to raise an additional $20,000.  We’re offering some cool new perks, including music by Mitzi Cowell, advance tickets to your local premiere of the film (including post-screening drinks with the director, and any other film participants who might be on hand), and the opportunity to garner an Associate Producer or Executive Producer credit.

If you’d prefer to skip the perks and make a tax-deductible donation, just drop me an email and I’ll give you the info on where to send a check.

As before, it would be fantastic if you can help us spread the word about the Final Push of our campaign by sharing our Final Push Indiegogo campaign far and wide.

We are so excited about our film, and can’t wait to share it with you.  Thank you SO much for your support–and your incredible patience!!!

–Bev and the rest of the Hippie Family Values team

The $23,000 raised through our Indiegogo campaign in April 2015 has allowed us to complete a near-final cut of the film. Viewers at preview screenings have called the film “revealing, moving, powerful, compelling,” “a seamless, lyrical, poignant piece of work,” “beautifully filmed and edited,” “gorgeous,” “wonderful!” Now we are seeking an additional $20,000 in completion funds to cover a professional sound mix, color grading, titling, and all the other technical processes necessary to prepare the film for launch. We will soon be reactivating our Indiegogo campaign site, and announcing some new perk opportunities. Please help spread the word to potential supporters. Can’t wait to share the film with you!

I’m back in Yellow Springs this summer for a 2-month Artist Residency, working with editor Jim Klein to turn our 25+ rough cut sequences into a MOVIE.  No kidding:  Jim is generously housing me for NINE weeks, and putting in long days in the studio, where we’ve already made incredible progress in our first 10 days of work.

Other attractions of this one-of-a-kind residency include exploring the beautiful surrounding countryside on my great borrowed bike, and the groovy village of Yellow Springs itself; cooking splendid meals together, and enjoying a couple of excellent local restaurants; and frequent jazz piano serenades by the multi-talented Mr. Klein.

Mostly what I’ve been learning as we work at this stage of the project is about storytelling itself–shaping character and story through editing.  Not that I have just been shooting aimlessly all this time.  But it has been particularly gratifying to watch the material shot over a period of 10 years, begin to fit together like a zillion-piece puzzle, to watch the essence of “characters” whom I’ve gotten to know so well over these years come into focus on the screen in 3-dimensional living color, as if Jim were translating my own perspective through his editing.

It is a strange and mysterious process, filming real people’s lives, and then crafting from that material something that feels MORE real and moving than just the uncut raw footage could ever be.  Jim has been honing this craft for over forty years, and it is a pleasure and a revelation to work beside him to bring this film to life.

Jim Klein was in town for another stint of editing before Thanksgiving. At the end of his stay, we presented our work in progress at the Bisbee Film Festival. It was great to share rough sequences with an audience for the first time. Folks seemed to love the project, which was very thrilling for us! Kate drove in from New Mexico and it was very cool for Kate and Jim finally to meet in person. Both of them went to Antioch back in the day, but never quite crossed paths (as far as they can figure).

Jim returns to Tucson in March when we’ll begin focusing on the overall structure of the film, after a total of 12 weeks of concentrating on discrete scenes and sequences. We are making exciting progress!!

Thanks to our Indiegogo supporters, I was able to spend about 5 weeks in May and July working with editor Jim Klein. He’s coming back to Tucson in November to present our work in progress with me at the Bisbee Film Festival, and to squeeze in a couple more weeks of editing before the holidays. Big thanks to Mary Beth and JJ for opening your airbnb digs to Jim, and allowing us to turn your dining room into an editing suite for weeks on end!

Meanwhile, as the weather finally cools down here in the desert, I have begun the perk fulfillment process at last! Will be boxing up Kate’s lovely pottery bowls and tiles, slipping Shannon’s stylish anklets into padded envelopes, packing up CD’s and DVD’s, and getting them into the mail in the coming weeks. Hippie Vegan Chef Robert Oser will host his garden tour and gourmet cooking lesson, and Shannon will teach beading workshops. And the Ticket to Ride folks are in for a great party…

Happy autumn equinox to you all!

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!! Together, hundreds of generous contributors carried this campaign across the finish line morning of May 6, with 15 hours to spare!! It has been an amazing community effort, and I am so very grateful.

And for those of you who still want to donate, you have not missed the bus!! Additional funds will help us pay for things like archival footage, and animation by Kate Brown (see link in comment below to check out Kate’s work)

Unending gratitude to everyone who has brought the project to this milestone. Now I need to get busy making plane reservations so I can resume editing with Jim–after a nice long nap!

BIG LOVE AND THANKS TO YOU ALL!!!
–Bev and the Hippie Family Values team

Thanks to everyone who came to the Hut on Easter Sunday to help us launch our fundraising campaign in style! Here’s a taste of the vibe that night, courtesy of indefatigable Tucson music videographer Frank Ramos.

If you haven’t visited our Indiegogo page yet, check it out HERE.

SUN, APR 5, 2015, 4-8pm
The Hut / 305 N 4th Ave, Tucson, AZ / $10 @ door

Lady Jane on Fourth Ave sez thumbs up to Hippie Family Values!

Spring greetings to you all!

Hope you’ll join us this Sunday for a 4-band dance jam to launch a fundraising campaign in support of my documentary in progress, HIPPIE FAMILY VALUES.

Here’s the fabulous line-up for Sunday’s fundraiser:

4-5 Top Dead Center
5-6 Wayback Machine
6-7 Mitzi Cowell Band
7-8 Planet Jam

»Hippie Celebration, Tucson Weekly

Thanks for all your support, and hope to see you there!
Bev