Documentaries done right serve a number of purposes for cinephiles – to educate, to inspire, to reflect, to synthesize – but my favorite brand of documentary has always been the kind that chronicles a people and a lifestyle that are diametrically opposed to the sort of person I am and the lifestyle I lead. And thus, enter The Source, which looks to fit perfectly into my preferred type of doc.
World premiering at SXSW, Jodi Wille and Maria Demopoulos’s film chronicles “The Source Family,” an “Aquarian tribe” that embodied just about everything people think of when they think of hippies, the 70s, and what it meant to be groovy. The Family was “a radical experiment in ’70s utopian living. Their outlandish lifestyle, popular health food restaurant, rock band, and beautiful women made them the darlings of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip; but their outsider ideals and spiritual leader, Father Yod, caused controversy with local authorities.” You read that right – they weren’t just a group of young beauties – they also crafted their own cottage industries. But what happened to Father Yod and his Family? You’ll just have to find out.
After the break, get an embrace from Father Yod himself with the full poster for The Source.
The Source will screen at SXSW on the following dates and times:
Sunday, March 11 at 1:15 PM at the Vimeo Theater
Tuesday, March 13 at 11:00 AM at the Alamo Lamar C
Friday, March 16 at 6:45 PM at the Alamo Lamar B