Santa Fe Film Festival 2009

Where have all the flowers gone?In 1988—twenty years after Woodstock—Seattle filmmaker Kevin Tomlinson asked himself that question. What he discovered back then, through in-depth interviews at a 4 day 'healing gathering' which drew 500 back to the land hippies, was that small counterculture communities of sixties dropouts were intact and surviving in the back country. In fact, they were thriving in the eighties, living off the rich, rural land of Washington state and refining sixties “hippie” concepts—completely independent of a culture that had all but forgotten and marginalized them.His footage sat untouched for 20 years.In 2008, in the tradition of 'Seven Up,' Tomlinson revived these old tapes and was deeply moved. What these outsiders were talking about in the eighties: sustainability, simplicity, family, love for the earth, self-reliance, and community responsibility—seemed to be blossoming with incredible force, 20 years later, into the mainstream.He decided to seek out his subjects again. The intimate and personal journey that followed offers profound, moving insights into one of the most iconic social movements of our time—and speaks to all of us. The pioneering lifestyles of these aging hippies and their now-thriving families, firmly insulated from global economic shocks, today looks wiser than ever.