"[E]ssential viewing for scholars, students, and anyone interested in the 1960s-era." Damon R. Bach, Senior Lecturer of History, Texas A&M University

Far Out's filmmakers can attend your event, host a discussion, or give a keynote address. To inquire about inviting a filmmaker to your screening, please contact info [at] bullfrogfilms [dot] com.

Far Out: Life On & After the Commune tells the story of two rural New England communal farms. The film traces 50 years in the lives of a group of New England writers, activists and artists.

The film begins in the summer of 1968, in the middle of a left-wing faction fight, when a group of radical journalists from Liberation News Service (LNS) leave New York City for the country. The journalists founded two communes—at Packer Corners in Guilford, VT and the other in Montague, MA—becoming pioneers in the back-to-the-land and organic farming movement.

In 1973 when the local utility proposed a giant twin nuclear plant four miles from the Montague Farm, Sam Lovejoy toppled a 500-foot weather tower. Following his acquittal the group became leaders in the burgeoning "No Nukes" movement fighting against the plants across the country from Seabrook to Diablo Canyon.

In 1979, they teamed up with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash and other committed rock stars to help produce the sold-out Muse concerts as well as a 250,000-person rally in New York City.

With two filmmakers in their midst they also produced some critically acclaimed documentaries and FAR OUT contains footage from the very beginning of the communes right up to the present day.



Grade Level: College, Adults
US Release Date: 2025     Copyright Date: 2024
DVD ISBN: 1-961192-48-9

Reviews "I loved this film. It brilliantly weaves together the fabric of the times in an accessible way. A must see for any student interested in social movements and social change." Susan Erenrich, Social Movement History Documentarian, Lecturer of Government Teaching, American University "In this era when people worldwide are searching for alternatives to neoliberal society, the example of Montague Farm and Packer Corners is inspiring. Students, environmentalists, and local community activists can learn much from these intentional communities of the 1970s when young people learned to farm, live together, and build a successful political movement that stopped nuclear power. This thoughtful documentary provides fertile ground for discussion around how to build future societies based on different values than those provided by late-stage capitalism." Stephen Wheeler, Professor Emeritus of Human Ecology, University of California-Davis, Author, Planning for Sustainability in the Time of Populism, Inequality, and Climate Crisis "Lively, humorous, inspiring...The film is vital, telling the history but hewing to the universal themes of how we grapple, over a lifetime, with politics, relationships, morality, spirituality, civic engagement and finding our home." Brattleboro Reformer "Like the spinning maypole at the annual celebration the communards continue to hold each spring, this film colorfully spins together personal politics and public issues. Free love, feminism, gay rights, raising children together, making theater and art, and learning how to survive in a rural setting meet up with engagement in No Nukes protests, environmentalism, local school boards, how to get along with more conservative neighbors, and much else in a refreshingly honest, thoughtful, many-layered, multi-voiced story of the long countercultural movement in American life." Michael J. Kramer, Associate Professor of History, SUNY Brockport, Author, The Republic of Rock: Music and Citizenship in the Sixties Counterculture "I realized watching Far Out that this was one of the first documents of these farm families that seemed generous, and genuinely interested in helping those of us born later on learn what actually happened...And it lets its subjects shine." Mike Jackson, Montague Reporter "When white, college-educated young people turn away from their urban, middle-class upbringings to create rural New England communes, they come under pressure to conform to social norms from both within and without. While to their chagrin they don't succeed in overturning patriarchal divisions of labor, they do find creative ways to stop President Nixon's plan to build one thousand nuclear power plants. This documentary will serve courses on gender, sexuality, sustainable living, rock and roll, and the anti-nuclear movement." Elise Lemire, Professor of Literature, Purchase College SUNY, Author, Battle Green Vietnam: The 1971 March on Concord, Lexington, and Boston "This is an important part of history...We need films like this - films that remind us that it only takes a few brave people to make the world a different place." Kenn Rabin, Archival Film Researcher, two-time Emmy Award nominee "Far Out provides the best introduction I can imagine to the possibilities of communal living in the 1960s and beyond. Montague Farm and Packer Corners were new kinds of places, where residents could learn about themselves and the land, and their activism transformed communities nearby and worlds beyond. This film captures what it felt like to be there - the dreaming and the dirt; the people and the places; the activism and the art; the sense that all things were possible." Blake Slonecker, Professor of History, Heritage University, Author, A New Dawn for the New Left: Liberation News Service, Montague Farm, and the Long Sixties "An absorbing historical tapestry...The doc reminds us what was so counter about the counterculture - not just the politics or the macho feats of activism...but the insistence on rethinking and questioning everything." Margot Harrison, Seven Days "Thoroughly engaging and entertaining...The Farm's roots in the Liberation News Service that also had a hand in many underground newspapers is noteworthy. This film would be a wonderful addition to any liberal arts curriculum. Well Done!" Thomas Kersen, Associate Professor of Sociology, Jackson State University, Author, Where Misfits Fit: Counterculture and Influence in the Ozarks "An illuminating glimpse of how youthful idealism flourished to become a driving force in the emerging antinuclear movement - and provides a hopeful blueprint for activists today." Dennis Perkins, Portland Press Herald "Packer Corners and the other communes of the 1960s era embodied all of the diverse strands of the counterculture - getting back to the land, political and social activism, challenging the dominant culture, and much, much more. This terrific movie really nails it!" Timothy Miller, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, University of Kansas, Author, The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond "Far Out is essential viewing for scholars, students, and anyone interested in the 1960s-era. Many of the major enthusiasms and movements of the Sixties - counterculture, feminism, Gay Liberation, and drugs - coalesced, as hippies went 'back to the land' to live on rural communes. These communards created a new life for themselves, while facing challenges that came along with organic farming, child-rearing, free love, and anti-nuclear activism." Damon R. Bach, Senior Lecturer in History, Texas A and M University, Author, The American Counterculture: A History of Hippies and Cultural Dissidents