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.

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.

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!!

"I'm still a hippie. I haven't changed. I keep changing but my core values of love, being against the war,making peace with the earth, are the same.

The rock bottom foundations of what hippies were...remain with us still.

I was never personally beat up, but we always hear the tales of long hairs where red necks would cut off their hair with chainsaws, people were beat up, houses were torched. Those were rare...mostly it was just a murmuring campaign and a lot of evil eyes and bad stares back then."

Skeeter just turned 60 recently.

But to look at him, you'd swear he's 10 years younger...in fact young organic farm interns have a hard time keeping up with him. A tireless ball of energy and enthusiasm, Skeeter is the original founder of the Okanogan Family Barter Faire, the Healing Gatherings  and most recently the Fairy and Human Relations Congress* (* which takes place annually in the Methow Valley).  

He is a much sought after lecturer on permaculture and wildcrafting, runs an herbal biz called Friends of the Trees (see Michael Pilarski) www.friendsofthetrees.net  and has lived most of his adult life on less than $2,000./year, no car, no permanant home. He's lived communally.  His is one of the stories told in the soon to be released feature documentary about a group of back to the landers who settled in the Methow and Okanogan Valleys in the 70's and 80's, "Back to the Garden, flower power comes full circle."