Celebration at Big Sur
Cast & Crew
Baird Bryant
Joan Baez
Carol Ann Cisneros
David Crosby
Chris Ethridge
Mimi Farina
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
At the three-day Big Sur Folk Festival in September 1969, Joan Baez headlines a lineup of singer-songwriters. The festival is held at the stunning Esalen Institute in California, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Performers stand at the edge of the institute's pool, while the audience of 5,000 gathers on the lawn opposite. Fans are shown arriving at the festival and gathering outside, with children dancing and adults mingling, preparing food and socializing. While musicians such as Baez, John Sebastian, Dorothy Morrison and the Combs Sisters, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and Joni Mitchell perform, footage of the concert is intercut with still images of nature, shots of the ocean and images of the audience. Baez sings "Sweet Sir Galahad" to images of her sister, Mimi Farina, dancing with her husband, Milan Melvin. Occasionally, footage of the musicians practicing is juxtaposed directly with their performances. After the first night, volunteers clean the grounds, while others relax in the area's natural baths. The next day, a heckler interrupts the performance of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, prompting Stephen Stills to engage the man in a fist fight. The altercation is soon resolved, and Stills addresses the crowd, then sings an a cappella song. Some men swim naked in the pool. Later, the filmmakers interview audience members, some of whom play instruments of their own. The performers enjoy a loose, improvised schedule and often join one another on stage. For the finale, the musicians unite onstage to sing a rousing rendition of "Oh, Happy Day." The film closes on the image of a small girl onstage giving the peace sign.
Cast
Joan Baez
Carol Ann Cisneros
David Crosby
Chris Ethridge
Mimi Farina
Joni Mitchell
Dorothy Morrison
Graham Nash
Julie Payne
Greg Reeves
John Sebastian
Stephen Stills
Dallas Taylor
Neil Young
The Combs Sisters
The Struggle Mountain Resistance Band
Christopher Ross
Don Sturdy
Lillian Roxon
Ron Martin
Ben Weaver
Peter Melchior
Dr. Francis X. Rigny M.d.
Kyle Lawton
Milan Melvin
Barry Adams
John Adams
Bob Cambridge
Patrick Cassidy
Fred Case
William S. Gay
Cynthia Harris
Jack Poet
Star
Yabo Yablonsky
Carl Gottlieb
Crew
Jim Auker
Joan Baez
Baird Bryant
Baird Bryant
Baird Bryant
Allison Caine
Howard Chesley
Joan Churchill
Joan Churchill
Joan Churchill
Sue Collins
Johanna Demetrakas
Johanna Demetrakas
Jackie Deshannon
Bob Dylan
Skip Gerson
Carl Gottlieb
Terry Hodel
Jimmy Holiday
John Horler
Kit Kalionzes
Bill Kaplan
Larry Klingman
Steve La Vere
Ernesto Lacuona
Ted Mann
Joni Mitchell
Randy Myers
Patrick O'neill
Peter Pilafian
John Sabator
John Sebastian
Vicki Sherer
Peter Smokler
Dino Valente
Jane Watkins
Gary Weis
Zalman Yanovsky
Neil Young
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's working title was Celebration. The opening cast credits conclude with the statement, "Big Sur, the Pacific Ocean and the audience." David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Neil Young, Dallas Taylor and Greg Reeves are listed individually in the closing credits, but are listed by their band name, "Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young with Taylor & Reeves," in the opening credits. Similarly, Dorothy Morrison and The Combs Sisters are listed separately in the closing credits only. The producers thank several companies and individuals in the onscreen credits, including Cinebound, Folklore Productions, Elektra Records and The Esalen Institute. A final credit reads, "The Big Sur Folk Festival is a Carlen-Kates Production, produced annually by Nancy Carlen and Paula Kates for The Big Sur Folk Festival, Inc. (a non-profit California corporation)."
The film was shot during the Big Sur Folk Festival in September 1969 at the Esalen Institute in California. The festival began in the early 1960s under the leadership of folk singer and songwriter Joan Baez, who lived at Esalen on and off for years. As noted in the LAHExam review, the perfomers appeared in the concert and film for free, to receive a portion of the profits after all expenses were paid. According to an April 1970 Daily Variety article, eighty-eight percent of the picture's profits went to the Big Sur Folk Festival Foundation, with the remaining twelve percent going to the crew. Filmfacts, however, stated that the film's profits went to Baez' Institute for the Study of Non-Violence.
In March 1971, Daily Variety reported that Twentieth Century-Fox had acquired worldwide distribution rights to the independently produced film. A modern source adds the Edwin Hawkins Singers to the cast. Producer Carl Gottlieb and interviewers Christopher Ross and Don Sturdy were members of the San Francisco comedy group The Committee. For more information on The Committee refer to the 1968 film Funnyman (see below). Later in his career, Sturdy was more commonly known as Howard Hesseman, the actor who rose to fame as "Dr. Johnny Fever" on the late 1970's television series WKRP in Cincinatti.
Reviews compared the picture unfavorably to the similarly themed concert film Woodstock (1970, see below), noting that Celebration at Big Sur lacked an organizing principle. Many reviewers also criticized the filmmakers' choice to accompany the songs with images from the lyrics and special effects shots, including superimposed opticals and negative images.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1970
Released in United States 1970
