#  Psychedelic Cinema | "One Step Away" 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **October 5, 2024** 

 07:00PM - 07:00PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Harvard Film Archive (Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy Street)**  



 

 



 

   ![Still from ](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/mahindra/files/one_step_away.png?itok=P3d0-YJE) 

 

##  [PSYCHEDELICS IN SOCIETY & CULTURE](/psychedelics-society-and-culture)

##  [PSYCHEDELIC CINEMA AT THE HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/programs/psychedelic-cinema)

###  About the Film

 The same year that Joan Didion published her stinging critique of the Haight-Ashbury counterculture in her now legendary collection *Slouching Towards Bethlehem*, Ed Pincus and David Neuman offered their far lesser known yet equally critical cinema verité portrait of a San Francisco area commune run, and run to the ground, by a megalomaniac leader and endless fount of tautological and self-serving platitudes. Cutting closer to the bone than any of the recent run of reality television cult movement portraits, *One Step Away* delivers a bracing and truly sobering look at one example of how a self-righteous White privilege personality cult could be fueled by easy access to LSD, pot and family money to extinguish the promise of the counterculture. Most striking are the moments when the fathers of the commune leader and of his partner tenderly, yet directly, question the children’s ideology, drug use and direction. The last HFA screening of this film in 2012 ended with an outraged self-proclaimed ex-hippie screaming at the screen and now deceased filmmaker, unable to bear the truth of Pincus and Neuman's revelation.

 Directed by Ed Pincus and David Neuman | US, 1968, DCP, black & white, 54 min.

###  Preceded By

 *Report from Millbrook* (1966, Directed by Jonas Mekas)

 [Visit the screening page on the HFA Website to learn more and buy tickets](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/one-step-away-2024-10)

###  About Psychedelic Cinema

 [Psychedelic Cinema](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/programs/psychedelic-cinema) is cosponsored and hosted by the Harvard Film Archive. Rather than solely focusing on LSD films that more directly depict or allude to drug use and psychedelic culture, this series aims to expand the notion of psychedelic cinema through the hallucinogenic lens. Through sounds and visuals, the films seek to bring viewers to an altered state of mind in which the impossible becomes possible and the unexpected becomes reality.

 The series runs from September 6 through November 7. For the full screening schedule and to buy tickets, visit the series page HFA website:

 [PSYCHEDELIC CINEMA SCHEDULE](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/the-trip-2024-09)

###  About the Study of Psychedelics in Society & Culture

 [The Study of Psychedelics in Society and Culture](/psychedelics-society-and-culture), an interdisciplinary effort across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Divinity School, seeks to transform the psychedelics research landscape by producing cutting-edge scholarship and convening faculty, students, and experts to engage in discussion around their far-reaching implications.



 

 



 

 See also:- [ Psychedelics in Society and Culture ](/event-series/psychedelics-society-and-culture)
- [ Public ](/event-type/public)
 
 

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