Commune on AllMovie

In 1968 members of San Francisco's Mime Troupe and Digger Movement decided to separate from society and form their own community, known as the Black Bear Ranch, to reconnect with nature and experience a different way of life. At the turn of the new century the resilient counterculture settlement was still active at the base of majestic Mount Shasta, and filmmaker Jonathan Berman traveled to the eighty-acre tract to explore just how the Black Bear Ranch continues to thrive despite the concerns of their suspicious neighbors and the ever-present eyes of the F.B.I. Life is lived at a different pace at the Black Bear Ranch, and now, as nostalgic members of the commune openly discuss just how life in the community has changed over the years, outsiders can finally see precisely how the bold social experiment has continued to defy all predictions regarding its longevity.