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

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.

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.

Tacoma Film Festival awards its top prize: "BEST DOCUMENTARY" to the 'Garden'

Director, Kevin Tomlinson receives "BEST DOCUMENTARY" award from Emily Alm, Tacoma Film Festival's director of programming and communication at the Grand Cinema in Tacoma on sunday 10-10-10....

Vancouver International turns it up a huge notch with two sold out shows and great press.

Vancouver was nearly a perfect audience for our film...home to many draft dodgers during Vietnam and haven to alternative lifestyles, B.C. is to Canada as California is to the States.

We screened on the first two days of the festival to capacity crowds who really 'got' our film. They laughed and sighed at every opportunity, hung on every word and gave thunderous applause following the film.

The organizers put us up in a beautiful downtown hotel, showered us with genuine Canadian affection, hosted Judy and I at gala event parties with Cirque mimes, delectable food and booze...We were pinching ourselves. Then we wake up to great newspaper reviews in the Vancouver Sun and the Georgia Straight, did interviews on Global TV and CBC radio's 'on the coast'. The consensus: Vancouver absolutely loved our film.

I can't say enough for the professionalism, genuine warmth and egalitarian atmosphere Vancouver's festival organizers exude...If this wasn't the best, it was damn near the best we've ever encountered along our festival journey...Met wonderful down to earth industry folk, hobnobbed and just generally had a very memorable experience in Vancity.

A huge hit of wind for our sails...

Ironweed Films makes "Garden" its September Film of the Month!

We're so stoked that Ironweed Films of Oxnard, CA. has chosen our film as their Film of the Month for September! This is a passionate, progressive, socially-responsible group of film lovers who know that many folks will never see Independent docs outside the film festival circuit. To bridge this gap, they offer a provocative film festival on DVD every month.

Ironweed Films

We came by B.A.R.T.... to San Francisco.

The symbol we all know...redone in the Haight at the Red Victorian Bed, Breakfast and Art. Painted by owner, Sami Sunchild, today in her Eighties... still dedicated to encouraging social and environmental responsibility. See more at peacearts.com

A moment of grace in the SF museum of Modern Art..."you should be showing your cowboy boots here!" a stranger said to Judy. Have a peek at frimframdesign.com

Downtown on Montgomery...signs of the past, present and future

A Love child In the Mission at the Noe Valley Ministry to show our film (it's the steeple on left). No kidding...I am a love child. I was born here. French Hospital, Geary Ave. Total 49ers and Giants fan growing up. I love this place.

A dedicated group came out to see our film, some who remember the flower power days personally and some who did not...thanks to our hosts, Ramon and Judy Sender, for the opportunity to screen at the venerable "Odd Mondays film series" . (We really did take the B.A.R.T. to S.F.)

Dutch Environmental Film Festival nominates "Garden" for Golden Strawberry Award!

Amsterdam's Studio K Cinemas hosted the Closing Night at the 2nd annual Dutch Environmental Film Festival.

"Back to the Garden" screened to a capacity audience on the final night of the four day festival which was held in both Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

The festival is unique in that it brought in a much younger audience than we've seen at most festivals...Young, 20 and 30-something men and women who are willing to work toward creating a sustainable world through getting out and rolling their sleeves up.

We had fantastic feedback from lots of inspired and motivated young Dutch Eco-activists who had nothing but compliments for the film's hopeful, inspirational message and thanked us for getting the story out to a global mass-audience.

A young African-English Doctor came up to us and explained how he was 'dragged kicking and screaming' to our film by the Festival's director. He said he was so taken with the film's characters' integrity and self-sufficiency...He found our subjects refreshingly genuine and honest in every way and was reminded of his fathers's rural upbringing and family values as a young immigrant coming to England from Nigeria. "I'm single and dating" he said. "I once had my date correct me on which hand to hold my knife with in a restuarant"...."Can you imagine", he said. " I'm way more interested in people like the young hippies in your film who seem to know what's really important and have their heads in the right place..."

So again it seems like our film isn't just about so-called 'Hippie values' but Human values...

The Golden Strawberry went to a great new film called "Dive" about L.A. Dumpster Divers

but we're so honored to be in the final running! and we met tons of wonderful new folks during the festival...thanks so much Ikenna and Mette from DEFF.

photo: Winners of the 'Best Dressed Hippie' contest: Bram and Wendy of Rotterdam. Our friends!

17th Barcelona Environmental Festival welcomes "Back to the Garden"

We're screening today (Thursday) at 8pm at the Cines Alexandra in the heart of Barcelona right on the historic Ramblas! For more on the Festival click Barcelona. more to come...

Soap Lake works its magic!

Dry Falls...20 mins north of Soap Lake on highway 17.... Not to be missed!

l-R: Judy, Skeeter (Michael Pilarski) and Kevin at Soap Lake's Masquers Theater on May 15th for Opening Night of the Soap Lake film Series, sponsored by Jacol filmworks.

Good crowd, great people...we met organic farmers, permaculture gurus, seasoned filmmakers and simply lots of like-minded folk who came out to support us. Soap lake has healing waters and we wasted no time checking it out...The lake has been a mecca to thousands in its heyday (early 1900's through WWII)...since then it's been largely overlooked.

But thanks to visionaries like Kathy Kiefer, local filmmaker and Soap Lake resident, it's on the comeback trail...We loved it and can't wait to go back and soak up more sunshine and it's amazing healing waters. Soap lake Washington.

It's also becoming a haven for artists and all sorts of alternative folk who love the natural beauty of the area and are creating real community.

May 15th... Masquers theater in Historic Soap Lake. 7:30pm Saturday night.

photo: Historian and filmmaker Kathy Keifer at Soap Lake 2005 (above)

photo: circa 1922 postcard from Soap lake: "It will cure you"....

We've had May 15th 2010 on the books for almost a year...Screening at a state of the art Theater (the Masquers theater) at Soap Lake, WA. a tiny dot on the map but....thanks to one kindred spirit, filmmaker kathy Kiefer, it's gaining a reputation for screening inspired independent films...Kathy has produced three docs herself and knows her audiences.

"I'm committed to producing documentaries that enlighten and inspire deeper thought." kathy kiefer

So we're really thrilled to be invited to Soap Lake and experience the healing waters, the local arts-scene and the historic spa-atmosphere which it's famous for...check out Kathy's site for more. www.soaplakewa.com

Where's soap lake? Just North of I-90 near Quincy. Not far from the Gorge Amphitheater.

Come on over for the weekend and meet the locals at our 'Garden Party'...

We're finally Here! Byron Bay Australia!

(photo: top- Byron Bay Festival Director J'aimee Skippon-Volke doubles as tour guide on day 1 bottom photo: The view looking South along the Australian east coast from the Byron Bay light house.)

We just arrived today, March 9th, 2010 after flying 14 hours from Los Angeles to Brisbane.

Took a two and a half hour shuttle van from the airport, where we met a couple of hippie kids were coming home from a snowboarding trip to Austria..."yeah, I lived in a tepee too" says Marty, now a cabinet maker doing contract work in the Byron Bay area...I'll tell my Mom about your film showing this weekend.

Our film posters are up, we got a personal tour of Byron Bay by BBIFF director, J'aimme Skippon-Volke, an evening walk in the tropical heat to work out the jet-lag stiffness and a great meal tonight at our deluxe accomodations...wow! As Judy likes to say, 'even I'm jealous of my own life!'

This festival is getting out the word and putting us in a great time slot (Closing day at 11:45am). They're displaying our film graphic prominently in the local newspaper ads, placed our poster right at the entry to their festival ticket office and it just feels great knowing that we're getting that kind of support here in Australia. It feels good...I think it's going to be a wonderful experience here. We're on the short list for the "Best Environmental film" award..

More to come! We screen on Saturday, March 13th.

Wild and Scenic: Standing room only...

Photo: Elise and Jesse interview OnePine and Kevin during the Wild and Scenic Environmental film festival in Nevada City, CA. The Live/Webcast interview can be seen on our Facebook fanpage...

Judy reluctantly stayed home to pack for our upcoming move. OnePine met me in Nevada City to represent our film...and I'm so glad she came to California. What a perfect place to show it. Lots of mature flower children now living in Nevada County who've moved there from the San Francisco Bay Area...(ca. 2 hours from Berkeley). "A hotbed of Progressives" Skeeter called it. Also Home to Kerouac Pal and Beat Poet/Icon, Gary Snyder. (Who through a mutual friend has a copy of our film.)

I was initially a little concerned that because of our very early scheduled screening at 9:30 on a Sunday morning, we might have trouble attracting a crowd...But it turned out to be an overflow crowd of over 200 with standing room only! Wow. That was a relief and to hear such genuine enthusiasm and laughter from the audience throughout the screening was a delight.

They really were moved and taken with our story and there was obvious excitement when the lights came up and the crowd saw OnePine. She had a great time at the festival...and was thrilled to have her oldest daughter, Yava and husband in attendance. They were proudly introduced to the crowd who hung on OnePine's every word...

"All the women in the Ladies Room were talking up your film" another filmmaker told me.
That's a good sign, I said. And it is. Women really relate to our film. Men love it too but there's
so much intimacy that's shared during the film that other women so identify with.

It was great to have OnePine to share the excitement and warmth of Wild and Scenic.
She's a terrific spokesperson for our film, enjoys coming out and meeting new audiences, is completely herself and comfortable with people..and they feel that and it comes right back.

Finally, I want to acknowledge our Wild and Scenic hosts for their warmth, generosity, tight organization and execution of the festivals dizzing details and demands...and for making us feel welcome, honored and important while we were there. You guys rock. Right down to the volunteers who drove us an hour each way to and from the Sacramento Airport.

To my wonderful home away from home, Sandra Rockman and her husband Tony for letting me stay with them during the fest...fed me home-made granola and yogurt, got me there on time, told me family stories...Really made me feel like family. It was a pleasure being with you!

Next up: The Sebastapol Documentary Film Festival in Sebastapol, CA. (March 5-7th)

Santa Fe Film Festival: Great Buzz, Great time, New Fans and lots of Salsa!!

Santa Fe was cold outside (8 degress!) but warm inside the festival theaters which screened about 150 films over 4 days. Back to the Garden made good press coverage locally:

a mention on the local NPR station's morning show, a short write up on opening day of the festival in the Sante Fe New Mexican Newspaper and a nice plug in the Albuquerque Arts Magazine too! (check it out)

Our film had great visability during the festival and we gave away a bunch of DVD's to filmmakers and fans to share...planting seeds.

We had two packed showings at the De Vargas Cinemas with very warm audience response at both screenings.

Next Stop: The Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival (Nevada City, California) January 15-17th...

Thanks to all of you who generously responded to our email request to visit our Santa Fe film listing and helped give us some major "Buzz" during the festival weekend. It was a huge help with over 250 responses!

We love you!!

"Garden" receives a FIVE STAR review in Portland's Willamette Weekly

photo: Phil Borges 2008

Portland's venerable Willamette Week Newspaper

rates "Back to the Garden" with Five Stars on eve of it's first theatrical run...anywhere.

The Clinton Street Theater, the oldest art house cinema in Portland is screening "Back to the Garden" for a special one-week run...

send your PTD friends over...If it does well, they're willing to extend the run. Cool!

click on the links above to read the entire review...

Santa Fe Film Festival: December 2-6, 2009

Heaven Scent Films announces:

the Southwest Premiere of

the award-winning new documentary

Back to the Garden

Flower Power Comes Full Circle

www.backtothegardenfilm.com

screening at the

Santa Fe Film Festival

www.santafefilmfestival.com

Thursday, December 3, 2009 at DeVargas 2 Theater *

Friday, December 4, 2009 at DeVargas 3 Theater *

A new Feature documentary which asks the Question,

Where have all the 'Flowers' gone?

Take a trip back to the remote wilds of Washington State, meet a community of off-grid, back to the land hippies who dropped-out of the American mainstream in the 1970’s.

In 1988, The filmmaker met and interviewed this thriving tribal community and now, 20 years later, returns to find out what’s become of their lives, their families and their dreams of environmental utopia.

Official Selection in 10 International Film Festivals

World Premier: Seattle International Film Festival

WINNER : Best of Washington film Award 2009

Come join us, tell your friends,

burn some sage….

* Filmmakers Kevin Tomlinson and Judy Kaplan will attend

and will host a question & answer session following the film.

Giant Crowd greets Garden Guests in Olywood fest screening.

Olympia Crew: (l-r) Kevin, Judy, Tomas, Harvey, Ginny and OnePine.

(photo: Deborah Vester)

Busking our DVD's...at the Capitol Theater following "Back to the Garden's" screening at the 26th Annual Olympia Film Festival November 8th.

(photo: Deborah Vester)

Olympia Film Festival (November 6-14th) celebrated its 26th Anniversary this year in the historic grand old Capitol Theater... our film was not only a great fit here but also created a lot of local buzz. Our 3:30 Screening was delayed due to the long line of people still waiting in the ticket line. An excited crowd of 400 waited patiently inside while Harvey Swanson and Tomas Caton performed on Guitar and Mandolin many of Harvey's songs from the BTTG soundtrack. We were padding time to get everyone to their seats before rolling the film.

We had the best time with all the old Okanogan friends who came over to gather and play music the night before at Ginny's...So good to have spent time getting to know Ginny, Tibor, Tikva, Avi and girlfriend, Tosi, Eden, Tomas and Brenda...and so many more! Thanks so much for coming out to support our film Olympia!

Many thanks to Shade Rupe, the OFF film programmer extrordinare and to Phil Rollins of Olympia's hipster haven, The Archibald Sisters, for putting up our poster in their display window and being the official sponsor of our film!