What is it like to make a documentary about one of the largest anarchic gatherings in the world, held in a remote part of a national forest?
Jonathan Kalafer, a media arts teacher at Dickinson High School in Jersey City, found out in July of 2008 when he and a production crew spent nine days in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming to shoot footage of the “Rainbow Gathering.” The gathering is an annual one-week congregation of thousands of people that is a throwback to a 1960s hippie love-in, with singing, dancing, and meditation.
“I think it was a really challenging project,” Kalafer said last week. “First, nobody at the event would talk, and then there was planning a shoot in the wilderness.”
Kalafer and his crew captured 40 hours of video that included seeing federal police crash the gathering and point taser guns at attendees.
“If you wanted to do something, you didn’t need to ask permission.” — Jonathan Kalafer
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The result is his first production, “We Love You,” a 39-minute documentary that will screen at the Hoboken Film Festival (which is actually being held in Teaneck) on June 7.
Kalafer, who resides in Mendham with his wife and two children, already showed the documentary at the New Jersey International Film Festival last year, where it earned a prize, and has screened it in Los Angeles.
The gathering has been held yearly, but with little formal structure. It has taken place for about four decades in relative anonymity.
“Most people are surprised that they haven’t heard of this festival, while they have hear about others like Burning Man [an annual festival in Nevada],” Kalafer said. “It is also such a difficult thing to get your head around.”
As for Kalafer’s future plans, he is already working on his new project, a documentary based on the book “The Soprano State” about New Jersey corruption.
Getting started
“We Love You” may have been Kalafer’s directorial debut, but he is familiar with the medium.
His father is Steve Kalafer, a wealthy New Jersey car dealer, owner of the Somerset Patriots baseball team, and producer of three Academy-Award winning short films. Steve Kalafer also produced his son’s film.
Kalafer has wanted to be a filmmaker since he was 13 and has assisted his father in his some of his filmmaking projects, including acting as his co-producer of the acclaimed 2006 documentary, “The Diary of Immaculee,” about a Rwandan woman dealing with the issue of genocide in her country.
Despite his experience working on shoots, Kalafer was not quite prepared for what awaited him once he embarked on the “We Love You” project. While he was aware of the Rainbow Gatherings since 1998, the year he went to his first gathering in Vermont, Kalafer didn’t know if he would meet a cooperative group when he decided to make the trip.
“I was so nervous since they are considered a non-organization with no boss, no formal structure,” Kalafer said. “But my father and my wife encouraged me to do the documentary; they had more faith in this production than me.”
How it works
With a crew selected with the help of the students from his classes at Dickinson, Kalafer set out in the summer of 2008 for Wyoming. Once the production team got to Bridger-Teton National Forest, they set up camp in a parking lot. Then it was an hour-long trek to where the Rainbow Gathering was actually held.
At the location, Kalafer saw before him a lot of self-organizing by the gatherers.
“Some people will build a stage if they wanted to have music, or would just play without one,” Kalafer said. “If you wanted to do something, you didn’t need to ask permission.”
While Kalafer said while at times it was “difficult” to get people to talk, he found some who were open to speaking, although media exposure is frowned upon by regulars at the gathering.
However, there were highlights: silent mediation from midnight to noon on the Fourth of July, with attendees gathering in a circle in the Main Meadow. And approximately at noon, the entire assembly begins a collective “om” capped off with celebration that includes a parade of children from their Kid Village.
Peace, love, and pepper spray
Unfortunately, the worst was saved for last when on the next to final day, when federal agents visited the gathering. The monitoring escalated into a near-siege, Kalafer said, after agents arrested one of the gatherers. The incident is captured in the documentary.
“Happily, I somehow kept my head as the agents were shooting pepper spray powder,” Kalafer said. “I was holding up my press ID, since I had a taser pointed at me.”
Kalafer said the incident was a traumatic moment for many who went through it. However, the next day, people got together to pray and help each other recover. He said this was a “wonderful sight to see.”
For those who want to see some of the sights captured in “We Love You” before the film, visit www.weloveyoufilm.com. – RK
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.