| RANDOM LUNACY: videos from the road less traveled | |||
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In Stock, Ships Immediately!
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DVD: $19.95
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Download: $14.00
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Directed By: Vic Zimet, Stephanie Silber
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Release Date: 2007-08-09
Running Time: 1:00
Content Rating: GA (General Audience)
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Audio Language(s): English
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Genres: Documentary >> Art & Artists :: Action >> Adventure :: New Age Influences: Surfwise, Off The Grid, Into the Wild // Capturing the Friedmans |
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The film follows a family of street performers who called themselves THE FLYING NEUTRINOS. They were homeless by choice, and for twenty years they documented their lives with an old
HI-8 camera, capturing adventures that ranged from a stint in a Mexican circus to pitting a scrap raft against the Atlantic Ocean. Their greatest achievement – creating for themselves an alternate universe with a value system all its own. Down and out never looked so rich.
Been wanting to see Random Lunacy for a while at the festivals, but wasn't able to actually do it... Now that I found it on DVD, I finally saw it...
The wait was worth it.. It is the story of a remarkable man named Poppa Neutrino who has led an adventurous life "off the grid"... He's 74, and has been homeless-by-choice for most of his life.. He raised a family on the street, and the kids seemed to turn out alright .. He put together a family band that would play "pretty much anywhere" to make money... Oh yeah, he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on a raft made of garbage! So he's an intelligent guy - The author of a Poppa Neutrino's New Yorker magazine story said that he could have been quite wealthy had he been materialistic...
There was some great archive footage - It seems someone in his family had stored a LOT of footage over the years documenting the various events...
Poppa Neutrino’s story unfolded nicely and was very engrossing... The documentary was short (an hour), and while that is usually a good thing - this time it wasn’t - I actually wanted to see more... Luckily there were extra scenes on the DVD.
Speaking of the Extras, make sure you watch the "Ingrid & Katrina" clip. The one thing I would change in the main movie is that this clip should have made it in there... I won't spoil this clip here, but to me, this clip put the lifestyle of Poppa Neutrino & his "teachings" into perspective.
Speaking of the "teachings", this is the one aspect that I didn't like... While it wasn't the filmmaker's fault (it is just Poppa Neutrino's personality), some of the older footage of him showed him to be a bit preachy. It is minimal, and doesn't take away from the documentary tho... Hey it looks like his kids turned out fine, so maybe there was something to it...
I really did love this movie... It showed that you didn't have to strictly follow society's rules to be truly happy and successful... And people could definitely learn from Poppa Neutrino.
-James, Scotch Plains, NJ, United States