In 1968, a group of political radicals left the city and became organic farmers. This is the story of how the commune became a community.
The film’s story 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) left New York City for the country. They founded two communes — at Packer Corners in Guilford, VT and in Montague, MA.
After leaving the city and turning away from national politics, the group of mostly young city slickers became pioneers in the back-to-the-land and organic farming movement. With the help of their neighbors, they spent the first five years learning rudimentary agricultural skills as well as how to live and work with each other as a communal family.
In 1973 when the local utility proposed a giant twin nuclear plant four miles from the Montague Farm, they became active opponents. In a dramatic act of civil disobedience, Sam Lovejoy, from the Montague Farm, toppled a 500-foot weather tower on the planned nuclear site. He turned himself in, and after a trial where he represented himself and drew national attention, was acquitted.
Subsequently, the group became leaders in the burgeoning No Nukes movement–from the battles over the Seabrook nuclear plant to Diablo Canyon in California and scores of reactor sites in between. In 1979, they teamed up with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, John Hall, Graham Nash and other committed rock stars to help produce five nights of sold-out concerts at Madison Square Garden and a 250,000-person rally in New York City.
Blending contemporary interviews and a remarkable trove of original archival footage, Far Out is lively, humorous, inspiring and irreverent. The point of view is honest rather than nostalgic. 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.