Far Out: Life On & After the Commune Screens at Billings Farm

Reflective and deeply human, Far Out: Life On & After the Commune traces more than fifty years of communal living, activism, and social change. This Woodstock Vermont Film Series documentary will screen on Saturday, January 17 and Sunday, January 18 at 3:00PM at Billings Farm & Museum.  A special Q&A with director Charles Light will follow Saturday’s screening. 

Beginning in 1968, a circle of radical journalists, writers, and artists left New York City to establish rural communes in Guilford, Vermont (Packer Corners) and Montague, Massachusetts (Montague Farm). What started as an experiment in communal living and organic farming became a catalyst for the back-to-the-land and anti-nuclear movements, helping to reshape rural New England and the people themselves. 

Through archival footage and present-day reflections, Far Out follows the rise of Vermont’s commune movement and its lasting influence on farming, activism, and community life. From their idealistic beginnings to the realities of aging; from the passion for new ideas to the work required to implement them, this film captures both the aspirations and the challenges of living together and building community.  

Seven Days calls Far Out “an absorbing historical tapestry” and describes the film’s joy as “infectious.”