Woodstock: A Snapshot in Time Study Guide
PLAYERS
You will meet some fascinating folk in this film. Let’s introduce them to you now.
Robert Downey, Sr. was a filmmaker, best known for his brilliant satire about advertising, Putney Swope. Some of his other movies are Greaser’s Palace, Chafed Elbows and Pound. He was a complete original and had a special humor and take on the world that he sprinkled lavishly onto all his work. He is the father of a somewhat known actor, Robert Downey, Jr. who appeared in many of his films.
Gloria Steinem is a goddess. She wrote undercover on the perils of being a Playboy Bunny, co-founded Ms. Magazine, and has inspired feminists across the globe. In 1971, she co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus which provides training and support for women who seek elected and appointed offices in government. Steinem helped establish Take Our Daughters to Work Day, and with Jane Fonda, and Robin Morgan co-founded the Women’s Media Center, an organization that “works to make women visible and powerful in the media”.
She is a prolific writer having published several books including The Revolution from Within and Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions.
She is quoted as saying ” “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
Richie Havens, was a musician and songwriter and the opening act at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. His grandfather was from the Blackfoot Nation and settled on the Shinnecock Reservation on Long Island. Richie had an intense guitar style mixing soul, blues and folk. His version of Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child always gives me the chills.
Mr. Havens wore a lot of rings and once said that ‘he didn’t think he needed to reincarnate.
Meir Fund is a renowned American Orthodox rabbi, Kabbalist, and spiritual leader of Congregation Sheves Achim in Brooklyn, New York. October 1977, Rabbi Fund performed at a concert in the Gramercy Park Brotherhood Synagogue’s succah that jointly benefited the Hopi Legal Fund, which defended Hopi lands in the West from being strip mined, and a communal settlement in Israel led by Rabbi Shlomo Carlbach.
Reverend Donna Kova Dauser, is a metaphysician, teacher and author. She is the creator of the Divining Nation, ann online magazine and is a skilled diviner. She also shared with me that she dated Jerry Garcia.
Danny Goldberg is is president and owner of Gold Village Entertainment, and former CEO of Mercury Records where he managed Nirvana and has written a memoir of that experience called Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain. He also lent me some money for the film. I hope to pay him back some day.
Dr. Andrew Tatarsky also went to Woodstock 1969. He is now a psychologist specializing in Harm Reduction Therapy and is the founder and director of The Center for Optimal Living. He plays guitar.
William Ramsey Clark was an American lawyer, activist and served as United States Attorney General from 1967 to 1969. As attorney general, he was known for his opposition to the death penalty, and support of civil liberties and civil rights. He supervised the drafting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. After leaving public office, Clark led many progressive activism campaigns, including opposition to the War on Terror.
We use subtitles on the interview because there was interference from a nervous leg hitting the microphone cable.
Mike Leigh is a preeminent British film director and playwright known for such films as Nuts in May and Secrets and Lies. He is a Pisces.
Mike Golden was a novelist, poet, artist and occasional filmmaker. He was one of the founders of the Unbearables Poetry Collective and produced Smoke Signals, an online literary mash up (https://smokesignalsmag.com/7/). His work appeared in many anthologies and The Buddhist 3rd Class Junk Mail Oracle was published by Seven Stories Press. His close friends got to read his conspiracy thriller Been to the Mountaintop, Went Over the Edge: Who Killed JFK, MLK & RFK (rights for the film still available). And being from Tennessee, he knew a lot about barbeque.
Terrence McKenna was as an American ethnobotanist and mystic advocated for the responsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants. He wrote about shamanism, philosophy, and the theoretical origins of human consciousness. He was called the “Timothy Leary of the ’90s” I found him intriguing but I’m not positive that I under stood what he was talking about. My bad.
Archie Cheechoo was a well-known Canadian Cree Singer and assisted Mi’kmaq Elder Albert in sweat lodge ceremonies.
Dr. Julie Holland is an author and psychiatrist/psychopharmacologist. She is a medical advisor to MAPS and was a medical monitor for clinical studies examining the efficacy of using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy or cannabis in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She is so smart it hurts.
Viola Jordanoff Bowman is the author of works on Paneurhythmy, a spiritual movement practice as taught by the Master Peter Deunov.
Lady Bunny (she/her) is a drag queen and the founder of the Wigstock Event. She released two disco singles: Shame, Shame, Shame and The Pussycat Song.
Januz Gilewiz is originally from Poland He is a muralist and painter and a bit of a philosopher. He was invited to design murals at the 1994 Woodstock Festival.
Howard Katzman is a domestic community development expert working with groups in Africa, the Caribbean, and New York City. I have known Howard since before the beginning of time.
Sharon Jane Smith (© Is this My Fault?) is a songwriter and storyteller. She is a founding member of Wow Cafe Theater in the East Village. She is a mandolin player and a member of ASCAP. She ran a second hand store with Beverly Bronson for 38 years called Repeat Performance and is writing a book about that experience. She has also tried valiantly to get me to de-clutter.
Citizen Randy is a citizen.