Back to the Garden is in a real horse race.
Out of over 1200 films, we're in 2nd place to win top prize
in the Culture Unplugged global online film festival.

You can help us win that race...it's easy.
Just click on the link (above) and click "PLAY".
Feel free to share the link with others.

If we receive the MOST VIEWS by December 15th,

we will win $3,000 dollars!!!

The celebration plan: we'll be giving away

free DVD's...signed by the producers of 

Back to the Garden.  

we'll have more news soon!  Thanks everyone for taking part.

San Francisco DocFest: First Stop Sunny Berkeley. Bringing back "Power to the People Right On!"

We arrived in San Francisco greeted by 70's plus weather.  What a change from the kalakala Gray and relative chill of Seattle.  After peeling off our layers of polar fleece and rain jackets we hopped on the BART to Berkeley and our first screening: the historic Shattuck Theater...just steps away from the U of Cal, Berkeley campus.

Due to the sunshine and unseasonal opportunity to get out and squeeze a little more out of Summer we had a small but enthusiastic crowd at the screening who stayed on for a lively Q & A and purchase a few DVDs...We met a terrific adventuress and writer from Guam who wants to show our film at next years  Guam Film Fest!  Hey do they spring for airfare and hotel too?  Our SF DocFest hosts are warm and experienced film lovers who made us feel right at home..and our Son Shane and his wife Song arrived with their 8 month old son Vincent!  So good to have them!

While awaiting our screening, we walked down Shattuck Ave, which runs right adjacent to the U of CAL campus and found a very lively and friendly group of 300 + folks with home made signs demonstrating in front of the Bank of America offices....these folks came in all ages, economic shapes and creeds...but they had one thing in common: They're pissed off at the unrelenting greed, injustice and indifference shown by the Banks, Corporations and the government.  Many had lost their homes, jobs and wanted to vent.

Speakers called for everyone to pull their money out of the Bank of America and to deposit it into local Credit Unions instead.  An Idea whose time has come!  As OnePine and others put it so well in BTTG,
we have the power to exert pressure by choosing where to spend our dollars.  Boycott the corporations sends a clear message that WE are the people that these institutions serve...not the other way around.

San Francisco DocFest next up!

Okay...here are our three Bay Area screening dates:

(includes Berkeley and San Francisco!)

Oct.15th (Sat) the Shattuck Theater in Berkeley @ 2:45pm

Oct. 18th (Tues) the Roxie Theater in S.F. (16th and Mission)@ 9:30pm

Oct. 23rd, (Sun) the Roxie Theater @ 7:15pm

We would love to have you share these dates with your Bay Area friends and family!

We've been invited to Screen at the awesome San Francisco Documentary Film Festival.

San Francisco here we come! We're not sure what dates but we're going to be screening twice between October 14th through the 27th at the Venerable "Roxie Theater" in San Francisco.

More details coming soon!
Very excited to show our film in San Francisco...the home of flower power and my home town. We're thrilled and honored to be a part of this true Indie film festival.

Check out their site soon for a listing of films and special happenings slated for the film fest in October.

www.sfindie.com

Spokane Earth Day Screening: sold out show, 3rd added by popular demand.

Our recent Earth Day series of screenings began in Bellingham at Western Washington University with a solid show of force by the students of Fairhaven and WWU turning out to support our film....OnePine's son, Bodie conceived organized and promoted the film as a part of Western's Earth Day

celebration...Great bunch of folks who were 2/3rds twenty-somethings and the rest baby boomers who remember it well...Music provided by Harvey Swanson and Deb Vester.

The very same night as the WWU showing, our film was broadcast on local PBS station, KCTS9 and drew the highest ratings yet for the entire series...

Then came Earth day in Spokane, Washington...the real capitol and service city to the communities of Back to the landers who are part of our film...They don't drive to Seattle to get supplies they can't get in Wennatchee, they drive to Spokane. Having an opportunity to bring our story of Eastern Washington's counterculture to the heart of Eastern WA. presented a rare opportunity. Luckily the gods of film screenings were smiling as we were joined by two of our main characters, Skeeter and Maeyowa for the post screening Q & A.

Humble and soft-spoken...a little humor thrown in, Skeeter and Maeyowa charmed our audiences with their well-informed answers about living and surviving without health insurance, the perceived contradiction of mega Corporations co-opting and offering organic food, about the spark that led them to choose the road less traveled....and much more...great questions that both our special guests had articulate and heartfelt answers for...the Spokane

audiences were spellbound. They loved the film but they loved our remarkable characters too.

Each of us really felt the genuine love and support expressed by Spokane's audiences. We had a magical time in Spokane! I can't wait to come back again. Thanks so much to the Magic Lantern Theater, the Inlander and Spokane Public Radio for helping us spread the word about our film! It just keeps on rollin'!

photos below: Our Earth Day road trip from the Methow Valley to Spokane took about 4 hours...we broke it up by stopping at the often missed viewpoint just above the Grand Coulee Dam...photos of Judy Kaplan (co-producer) with Maeyowa sharing lunch at this amazing picnic spot.

Earth Day Invasion... Spring 2011

EARTH DAY is here and we are spreadin' the news to all of Washington State...and even B.C. the entire Earth Day weekend...

On April 21st, 'Garden' airs on KCTS9 television to a potential audience of 2.5 million viewers including British Columbia...the same day we're having a special Campus Screening at Western Washington University in Bellingham (Fairhaven Auditorium) at 6pm on April 21st...then two days later, drive over the mountains to Spokane queen of the Inland Empire, for a special, one-night only EARTH DAY screening at my favorite inland empire venue,

The Magic Lantern Theater. (Saturday, April 23rd @ 5 & 7pm)

They're going to love us in David Lynch's hometown....We're getting amazing press coverage in the Spokane Inlander and we are bringing very special guests to Spokane for this one-night only Special Earth Day showing...We look forward to meeting all you Warshing-tonians.

Sarajevo, San Francisco and Salt Spring Island B.C. film festivals: lovely people!

The weekend of March 3-6 was our busiest in awhile...Three International film festivals, running simultaneously, showed our film to brand new audiences.

Judy and I were attending the first ever, San Francisco Green film fest at the swanky Landmark Embarcadero Cinemas while Deb Vester, one of our main characters from the film represented us at the wonderful Salt Spring Island Documentary festival up in the Canadian Gulf Islands. She had a wonderful time and says the audience was super engaged in the film...thanks to Diane Copeland and the fest organizers for the invitation and giving Deb the royal treatment.

The third screening was at the 17 International Environmental film festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzogovina. (see their wonderful green eyelash graphic) We're still waiting to hear how that went-we'll follow up later. We had over one hundred people at our Sarajevo screening according to the festival director!

San Franciso was wonderful...we met so lots of new people, saw other terrific films, networked the crowd with postcards and sold DVD's too. We had such a great venue, time slot (8:15pm on a Saturday night!) one of the largest turnouts of the festival and a special 'Centerpiece' Flower Power after party directly following the screening...Thanks so much to Rachel Caplan (festival Director) and her top notch staff including BTTG's own Shane Keller (he appears in the '88 healing gathering and says " the purpose that brings us all together is LOVE.") Shane came down from Humbolt County to volunteer at the festival and we had a terrific time getting reacquainted...he's a terrific human being.

We also met Dorio and Tree who came up from Watsonville to be at the screening and also participated in the Q & A following the film. They are both part of the original Okanogan community and joined us for the after party as well...thanks for coming to San Francisco you two!

Icelandic TV requests Back to the Garden

Icelandic National Television has acquired the rights to broadcast "Back to the Garden, flower power comes full circle"! From the land of Free Willy, Bjork and Sigur Ros...there will be a national broadcast of our film this Spring...we'll announce the date soon.

A little background: RUV-the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service-is an independent (that's why they like us) public service broadcaster, owned by the state of Iceland. Begun in 1930, RUV's income can only be allocated for broadcasting purposes. They operate one TV and two radio stations covering the whole of Iceland. Their main charter: "...honor basic democratic rules, human rights and the freedom of speech and opinion". Yeah baby!

San Francisco Green Film Festival 2011. Brand spankin' new...and we'll be there. With fleurs in our hair!

Tell your Bay Area friends to come join us at the Brand Spankin' New,

SF Green Film Festival...March 3-6th at the Landmark Cinemas at Embarcadero Center (in the heart of Frisco).

I love San Francisco! I was born there... and this is such a heartfelt thrill and an honor to come show our film in THE place which has such historic connection to our film...Flower Power was born here.

Friends...clik and "like" on our own SFGreen FF Webpage...the more BUZZ we create, the more folks will come see our film and spread the message. This is such a wonderful opportunity for our film...thanks everyone for helping 'share the love'... kevin

This Little Light of mine...I'm a gonna let it shine...

The Animals Save the Planet ...Energy Efficient Penguin

REEL NW to broadcast Back to the Garden January 27th, 10pm on KCTS CH.9 (PBS).

The exciting news for January: REEL NW, a brand new television series from Seattle's PBS affilitate, KCTS channel 9, is set to air "Back to the Garden" on January 27th (thursday) at 10pm. This will be our film's first time on Television...a world television premiere! We are very proud to be a part of KCTS' new series featuring 'the very best of independent film from the Northwest.' We'll keep you posted as the date gets nearer...

New BTTG Interview/Podcast available

Following our wonderful experience up in Vancouver late this Summer at the Vancouver International Film Festival, we've received several requests to show the film in Canada.

The good folks up in British Columbia and as far east as Ontario are really in step with our films message that living the simple life can be a very fulfilling life. The empowerment one feels building your own home, having a sense of community and knowing that you're eating healthy, home-grown food...is being passed on to an new generation. A generation that honors the sixties activism and ideals but is looking to put their own mark on the future.

Recently I was contacted by a young man, originally from South Carolina,who now lives in B.C. He wanted to interview me about our film that he'd seen at VIFF. We're very happy to spread the word but it's especially fulfilling when someone who's fresh out of college is inspired by the example of our film's characters...Skeeter, OnePine, Maeyowa, Deb Vester, Jerry Bartels and Jeffrey Stonehill...and wants to know more.

He's put together a great blog of ideas and interviews with folks who talk about a wide variety of issues concerning the environment that he calls the ExtraEnvironmentalist.

Here's the podcast/interview conducted in late November 2010.

It's almost an hour long interview/podcast so feel free to download it onto your ipod or other digital device for an interesting hour of discussion. Comments always welcome.

thanks so much Justin and Seth.

Ojai film festival offers a taste of Hollywood mixed with beads and incense.

If you drive about an hour northwest of Los Angeles, tucked away into the coastal hills, you 'll find Ojai. A native American word meaning 'Moon's Nest'. Ojai has about 8,000 residents, a mix of L.A. retirees, Hollywood veterans, farmers and many counter cultural folks who love its spiritual,small-town vibe..sits at the base of some impressive mounts called the topa topas...At sunset the hills glow warmly in what the natives refer to as 'the pink moment".

We enjoyed some warm moments ourselves as we showed our film at the 11th Ojai film festival Nov. 4-7th. Met lots of Southern Californians at Ojai who loved our film and thanked us for its sweetness, honesty and uplifting message. Great weather greeted our Southern Cal debut along with good sized audiences too...We loved both the Art Center and Ojai Playhouse venues.

We attended some terrific workshops with legendary cinematographer Michael Chapman (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Detail), listened to the wisdom of Independent Producer Larry Turman (the Graduate), rubbed shoulders with other filmmakers from L.A., latvia and AFI and saw films you just can't see anywhere else...Special thanks to Steve and Liz Grumette for sharing their home with us and talking us up with locals...who couldn't have been warmer...thanks Ojai!

Duke City Docfest wraps...nominates BTTG for award.

The first annual Duke City Docfest took place October 10-15th...Back to the Garden had two screenings. Not a hollywood A-list scene to be sure but the organizers hope to make it a big draw in the years to come...I went because our film was shown in the KIMO theater.

The KIMO is the kind of place you want to be married in and buried in...It's a landmark movie palace that the city wisely treasures and has recently renovated to show off its T and A... Treasures and architecture! It's worth a lot more text but just take my word for it, it's like no other movie theater you've ever been to...an amazing movie palace that's one of a kind.

We were nominated for Best Cinematography. Cool!

My Albuquerque hostess with the mostess, Cousin Tama! Who was also 'born in the you es seh'. You Rock Girl! And in no small part thanks to her parrot 'Montel Herman' who only bit me once and likes me just fine now...

A shop on Central ave..I love the way the chain drape turns this scene into a kind of modern pointilist painting...I had huge fun shooting on old Route 66.

Downtown Albuquerque...Central Avenue, the heart of the City...the old Route 66 highway.
Yep, Duke City's turnout was modest...but we had a great Q & A...heck they agreed to pose for a group photo just to commemorate the occasion of Albuquerque's first year Documentary fest!
The facade of the venerable KIMO theater...a mix of art deco architecture combined with an incredible decor of southwest indian art...a true movie palace I'm honored to have shown our film at...thanks so much Jesse and the generous folks at the Duke City Docfest.