Spark Plug Cowboys

Nearly 100,000 youth migrated to San Francisco during 1967’s Summer of Love to turn on, tune in, and drop out. A short time later, a group of kindred spirits calling itself the “Chosen Family” built a satellite base camp 30 miles to the north on a pastoral piece of land once home to Coastal Miwok. Like so many utopian experiments, this one included highs–all kinds of them–and lows, tragic ones. Social currents passed through the Olompali commune in ocean waves: clothing was optional, authority disdained, and weed widely distributed. Peter Coyote narrates this warmly reflective story, which crosses paths with the Grateful Dead, Hells Angels, the Diggers, and a guru given the title “father.” It also drops in key chords from the era’s soundtrack. Resisting judgment, and powered by the perspective of the commune’s children, Olompali celebrates the “hippie” spirit and one man’s effort to invent a new world in Novato. | WORLD PREMIERE IN PERSON: Director Gregg Gibbs, Producer Maura McCoy P