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Loren Sears Gallery

Hippie Tribal Home Movies

Human Be-In, January 14, 1967
Tribal Home Movie 2, 1967
Pacific Lake (Summer 1972)

Loren showed up one day with an offer of several of his videos for the Digger Archives. This was serendipity—Loren's donation was in time for the 50th anniversary of the Human Be-In that took place at the Polo Fields in Golden Gate Park on January 14, 1967, one of the foundational-formational events in the hippie counterculture. Loren filmed the Be-In and then put out the call for other filmmakers to contribute their footage. The result was a collaborative collective effort to mark that moment when the Haight-Ashbury announced itself to the world.

The other two videos were part of Loren's work documenting the back-to-the-land movement in the Western U.S. during the early 1970s. Many of the participants in these videos had come out of the Digger/Free City movement that had reached its apex in 1968 before dispersing into the countryside in search of sustainable lifestyles.


Human Be-In (Jan. 14, 1967) by Loren Sears



Tribal Home Movie #2 by Loren Sears (no sound)


Note from Loren on the two videos (above): "These were originally 16mm films made for large screen theater, optical projection. Seeing them in small screen video diminishes their aesthetic value. On BE IN, play sound loud. THM is silent."

Pacific Lake (video postcards, Summer 1972) by Loren Sears



Note on Pacific Lake: this video is a compilation of video postcards that were created as part of the Tribal Vision Network during the early 1970s. Loren traveled up and down the West Coast bringing video messages from one communal group to the next. A timeline for this video is included at the bottom of this page. Further information is available on Loren's web for the Tribal Vision Archives.

Biographical info for Loren (from his website):

Before becoming a filmmaker, Loren Sears earned a BA in Physics from the University of Oregon with graduate study in physics and computer science at Syracuse University and the University of Michigan.  He was employed as an instructor, programmer and researcher at the Syracuse University Computing Center; the UM High Energy Physics Research Group; and by IBM (SBC), Palo Alto.  He currently lives in his hometown of Eugene, Oregon, near his two grown children, where he practices Buddhism, dancing and community building.  He travels frequently to Southwest France. He was born in Seneca, Nebraska on November 17.

In San Francisco, 1965, he began making avant-garde films and video; became a founding member of Canyon Cinema Coop; and manager of Canyon Cinematheque; produced numerous artistic/documentary films and videos of alternative and Native American cultures; was an artist-in-residence and guest director, KQED-TV. Taught filmmaking, San Francisco Art Institute and University of California SF; video at Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA.


 

Timeline for Pacific Lake video

Recorded summer 1972 from Bolinas, CA to Blain, WA; edited Winter ’73 from the entire collection of Tribal Vision tapes. This is a poem edited around four story lines which all climax near the end. It follows the cyclic pattern of a day, morning to evening, with birth and awakening as the outcome. It is about inventing new culture, West Coast, circa 1972.

1:00:03 Prologue: Hopi Corn Song, written and sung by Doc Dachtler, North San Juan, CA. (This tape is unstable at beginning of Song. Some recording garbage exists after song, before Pac Lake opens)
3:42 Opening: Canadian emigration at border. Reentry past Peace Arch and US interrogation: “Got enough money?”
4:16 Martin MacClain (MM)—Marin Watershed Conference, talking to Gil Bailey “Capital”
4:29 Black Bear (BB)—breakfast table talk “logging on Know Nothing Creek.”
4:55 MM—“Wealth in terms of capital.”
5:17 Whidbey Island, WA. (WI)—fishing, piano by Michael Tierra, morning clean up.
7:05 MM—“Natural state…exclude Zen Buddhists… not many people here before us.”
7:37 Leonard, Charles Ranch garden, Sonoma Co. ”only decent soil around here.”
7:59 Peter Warshal (Co-Evolution Quarterly) doing herbal walk in yard, Bolinas, CA
9:09 BB—“Thunder’s coming on.” Marty watching clouds come in.
9:25 Leonard Charles “We live here on 800 acres…self sufficiency.”
10:20 BB—garden “I expect to see thunder any minute, now.”
10:32 WI—Michael Tierra on piano by candle light.
11:04 MM—“to develop a market place ….Anthropologist’s view ….Colonial View.”
12:46 West Marin zoning, camping hearing. Pt Reyes. “Squatters” (13:12 health officials try to roust bus squatter; 13:50 “beef is with the tipi."
14:11 BB—Zoe jiggles in, Marty still watching clouds.
14:35 Buzzard on wing. Tom T. (Sonoma co.) plays steel guitar riff.
14:55 BB—Rain finally falls on pond. (no thunder though)
15:12 WI—Michael Tierra piano concert continues by candle light
16:36 Jane Lapiner, Benbow, CA, dance/movement class ”have the image of the energy up and out"
16:44 Birth sequence photos, Patty & Sunshine @ Big Foot, narrated by father.
18:08 WI—Shasta by candle light. M. Tierra concert continues
19:42 MM—“system of  distribution… free people … alert to creature in him.”
21:04 black
 
 
The Digger Archives is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Cite As: The Digger Archives (www.diggers.org) / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 / All other uses must receive permission. Contact: curator at diggers dot org.