''Commune'' is a 2005

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

by Jonathan Berman. The film is about an

intentional community An intentional community is a voluntary residential community designed to foster a high degree of group cohesiveness, social cohesion and teamwork. Such communities typically promote shared values or beliefs, or pursue a common vision, wh ...

located in Siskiyou County, California called Black Bear Ranch and features narration by Peter Coyote who himself once resided at Black Bear.

Reception

''Commune'' was well received with a score of 95% fresh at

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

lists ''Commune'' with a score of 74 out of 100. Maitland McDonagh of ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' pronounced it "A close examination of a quintessential '60s phenomenon that speaks volumes about the attitudes and experiences that shaped the decade ... captivating. Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com said "Amid the dozens of documentaries made about various aspects of '60s society and culture, "Commune" stands out for its ambiguity, honesty and sheer human clarity ... an extraordinary collage." A ''New York Times'' review, titled "Just a Hardy Bunch of Settlers Who Left America and Moved to California", described the commune veterans: "However weatherbeaten they appear, they still have a light in their eyes, and they exude the hardy spirit of pioneers who are older and wiser but unbowed," adding that they look back with "pride, amusement, and sadness." A review in the ''

New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American conservative news website and former newspaper based in Manhattan, New York. From 2009 to 2021, it operated as an (occasional and erratic) online-only publisher of political and economic opinion pieces, as we ...

'', provides more specifics on a fundraising technique one former member called "emotional blackmail," claiming that the $22,000 initial land purchase was acquired by pitching rock musicians that: The ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'', ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'', and '' Variety'' all gave the film positive reviews.

References

External links

* * 2005 films American documentary films Hippie films 2005 documentary films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films History of Siskiyou County, California English-language documentary films {{2000s-US-film-stub