In December 1976, 16,000 people converged at the Cotter River in Canberra for the “Down to earth” festival; a conference on alternative lifestyles. In attendance were Reverend George Davies, Dr. Jim Cairns, Dr. Jim Falk as well as thousands of counter culture followers. This documentary explores the festival and the themes of politics and social change. The Philisophy of Ex Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Jim Cairns is particularly focussed on with its emphasis on how a nation state creates a ‘bad society’ and how communal life and a counter culture lifestyle forms the only radicalism against society.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 70,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued since the 1940s. As a result, some items and their descriptions may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
This work has not been digitised and is currently unavailable to view online. It may be possible for approved researchers to view.
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
308086
Language
English
Subject categories
Documentary → Documentary films - Australia
Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Alternative lifestyles
Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Hippies
Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Alternative lifestyles
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)