Celebration at Big Sur (1971)
Star-studded show recorded at the Big Sur Folk Festival, Big Sur, California, September 13th and 14th, 1969. Joan Baez, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell, John Sebastian, and others. This film captures a remarkable moment in folk, rock, and pop history - the famous folk festival that brought traditional acts like Dorothy Morrison & The Combs Sisters and Carol Ann Cisneros together with the psychedelic rockers of the day who were most deeply rooted in the folk revival. Older songs like ‘Oh Happy Day,’ ‘Rise And Shine,’ ‘All God’s Children,’ and ‘Swing Down, Sweet Chariot’ meet Joni Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock,’ Joan Baez’s ‘Sweet Sir Galahad,’ ‘Bob Dylan’s ‘I Shall Be Released,’ CSNY’s ‘Down By The River,’ and many more of the now-classic songs of what was then called the ‘new rock.’ The scene is notably intimate and - aside from one fan’s dustup with Stephen Stills - mellow, with many rare, close-up moments with the stars.
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The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.
HI! I am from the UK and I have read the other reviews posted about this film and I want to add my piece to some of the comments already posted here.I agree that Celebration at Big Sur is probably not the definitive music documentary of this era, nonetheless it is a fascinating view into this period with some great musical performances, and in a much more intimate setting than the big festivals as conveyed in Woodstock and Monterey Pop. I wish this film was shown more often late night in UK as it apparently is in US ? I caught it only once on TV in the UK as part of a series about the era on TV over here way back in the 80's. I managed to capture it on VHS at the time along with Monterey Pop and Woodstock and have viewed it many times since,but the VHS quality was not so good and I don't have a VCR or the tape anymore. For people who didn't grow up in this period I think this a great watch if you want to get a feeling for that period. I was quite young when all this great music was happening, so for me it was very much an education to see this film and get a feel for the period it was composed in. I would love for someone to master this to DVD so it was available more widely and with better quality, because I found it captivating to see this time capsule of the sixties. In my opinion this film has a different feel to the era than the larger scale offerings of Woodstock and Monterey Pop and deserves its place on the DVD racks alongside them.I for one would love to see it there.Kev, London UK
The Esalen Institute where this concert took place began as a comparative religion institute in 1962 and still exists today attracting musicians, artists, filmmakers, authors, philosophers and other notables conducting seminars and symposiums. In 1969 it hosted it's 6th annual music festival which is the subject of this film. In the 60's such performers as Simon & Garfunkel, Arlo Guthrie, Ravi Shankar, Judy Collins, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grace Slick, James Cotton and even a 19 year old Bruce Springsteen played at various festivals. None of the afore mentioned are in this film. Many luminaries visited the institute in the 60's including Ansel Adams, Aldous Huxley, The Grateful Dead, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Hunter Thompson. As the 60's drew to a close filmmakers Baird Bryant and Johanna Demetrakas decided to capture on film the 6th annual concert at Big Sur. Bryant had five cameras to film the event including himself, Bill Kaplan, Gary Weis, Peter Smokler and Joan Churchill. About 12,000 people attended the two day event so this is a vastly scaled back outdoor concert from Woodstock that had happened only one month before. Crosby, Stills, Nash along with Neil Young who had joined CSN in their debut as a foursome at Woodstock are the featured act still working on their play list. Joan Baez who in her late teens lived at the Esalen Institute is a performer here as well as her sister Mimi Farina. Joni Mitchell, John Sebastian and Dorothy Morrison of the Edwin Hawkins Singers are the other nationally known acts on the bill. Other performers include Texas folk singer Carol Ann Cisneros and the other acts rounding out the bill are The Struggle Mountain Resistance Band, The combs sisters and Julioe Payne. The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Incredible String Band also performed at the festival but are not in the film. in an unconventional stage setting for an outdoor 60's concert the performers play on the pool deck in front of a large swimming pool that separates them from the audience. This is a low budget film that tries hard to be a combination documentary, concert film and art film but mostly fails in all three. It is a good snapshot of 60's love and peace through music however. I would give this a 6.5 out of 10.
If hippies were all about peace and love why did Stills try to whip ass and take names? Amateur camera work and some really bad acts couldn't take away from the coolness of this documentary. I never heard of several of the performers and never cared 2 cents for Baez or Mitchell, but CSN&Y were worth the price of admission. Nice look at the good old days; glad I wasn't there - what a crowd scene. A better film in this genre was '67's Monterrey Pop Festival.
The music isn't exactly my bag, but there's no denying the historical interest of this low budget film about a low budget festival that took place in 1969 at the Esalen Institute, one of the premier psychobabble headquarters of the day. If you enjoy footage of folks flying their freak flag high, this is for you. Fans of folk music will be in heaven, but others will find the sounds pretty thin gruel--and sometimes, especially in the case of Joni Mitchell's caterwauling, the musical equivalent of a high colonic. Neil Young looks and sounds cool, especially on an organ-heavy number early in the film, and the Edwin Hawkins Singers are excellent. The film has a grittiness that sets it apart from Woodstock, and the small nature of the crowd--and the fact that the 'stage' is one side of a swimming pool--make this a valuable record of what seems to have been a genuine communal experience.