A documentary some 50 years in the making, “Far Out: Life On & After the Commune” is director Charles Light’s account of two of the most influential and successful of the New England communes that sprang up at the end of the 1960s. Playing at Portland’s SPACE at 7 p.m. Tuesday, the documentary provides an illuminating glimpse of how youthful idealism flourished to become a driving force in the emerging antinuclear movement — and provides a hopeful blueprint for activists today.
A long, strange trip
“We did pretty good for a bunch of hippies,” says filmmaker Light of his time living in and around the Montague, Massachusetts, commune. (The other depicted in the film is in Guilford, Vermont.) “We started out from nothing, but a few of us were from rural backgrounds, which helped. And some of the locals gave us help, too.”

As seen in “Far Out,” both communes had to overcome a lack of practical knowledge to go with residents’ youthful idealism, which they did through trial and error and a lot of hard work. Showing the evolution of the two groups from disaffected underground journalists from the New York-based Revolutionary News Service to self-sustaining farmers and eventual antinuke activists, the film is a raucous, even joyous celebration of hope and ingenuity, warts and all.
Not shying away from the ingrained blind spots and prejudices (homophobia and sexism were inescapable themes) that mark even the most outwardly progressive groups, “Far Out” features interviews with the aging but still involved former residents as they relate how they worked to make these communal living spaces truly equal. “A lot of these communes became overtly religious or cultish,” says Light. “We didn’t suffer from that, thankfully.”
Which isn’t to say “Far Out” is devoid of drama. An early heist/hostage situation involving the more militant anti-Vietnam War types that the journalists split from is a harrowing chapter tailor-made for a Hollywood biopic. (Something Light and various others have tried to get off the ground over the years.)

An image from the film “Far Out: Life On & After the Commune.” Photo courtesy of Green Mountain Post Films
Then there’s the daring and controversial act of Montague resident Sam Lovejoy, who, to protest a nuclear plant planned next door to the Massachusetts commune, single-handedly toppled a 500-foot weather tower on the planned construction site (The 1975 documentary “Lovejoy’s Nuclear War” about Lovejoy’s act and subsequent trial from Light’s Green Mountain Post Films became a foundational text in the growth of the 1970s antinuclear movement).
There’s also the group’s involvement with what became a massive cultural touchstone in the “No Nukes” concerts and film, which saw musical icons from Bruce Springsteen to Bonnie Raitt performing for huge crowds at Madison Square Garden.
Says Light, chuckling, “The 1960s is a very difficult time to capture in a way that’s true as a narrative film. Not to mention as a documentary.”
Looking Back to Show the Way Forward
For Light, making “Far Out” from mountains of home movies and interviews was always the plan, even if time and life got in the way. “Around two years ago, I said, ‘You know, it’s now or never,’” he said. “I was 73 then and had been trying to develop this story into a documentary or a feature for decades” (The interviews with fellow residents featured in the film are now 20 years old).

An image from the film “Far Out: Life On & After the Commune.” Photo courtesy of Green Mountain Post Films
“So I took all the footage and cut the film in about a year, thinking it had all been sitting around so long that I needed to finally make it into a movie. It’s odd — I lived with it so long I’d become bored of it, in some ways. But in cutting it, I realized I could hardly believe this was my life. It was exciting and interesting again.”
Thinking the finished film would disappear into the University of Massachusetts archives along with the other documentation of the communes’ history, Light was thrilled — and not a little shocked — when Brattleboro, Vermont’s Latchis Theater, his local indie movie house, saw its booking of Light’s lifelong project take in a record-breaking box office last year.
“We outperformed everything at the Latchis except ‘Barbie,’” laughs Light. “A lot of the audience skews older, boomers who lived through that time and place. But younger people have responded, too, maybe because I tried to avoid being too nostalgic.”
I’d suggest that the current political climate holds an appeal for young audiences needing some inspiration in a particularly ugly and frightening time in this country, a view Light endorses. “After the election, the film acquired a little more emotional punch,” he said, nodding toward his tale of committed and daring young people fighting against an increasingly repressive and hateful political and social environment.
“After the election, a lot of people were feeling pretty devastated,” says Light. “And whatever lessons there are in our story, they’re about the need for perseverance. You get through these things and you build on them. You take a step back and figure out how to organize, how to counter all this. For people feeling adrift, I think the film has been helpful.”
IF YOU GO
“Far Out: Life On & After the Commune” screens at SPACE at 7 p.m. Tuesday, with a discussion afterward with filmmaker Charles Light. Tickets are $15/$12 for SPACE members.
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