A Key Piece Of History, Pointing to the Future
The film above has never been on the internet before (my bad!). It was made by my father, Art Rosenblum, and his nonprofit, the Aquarian Research Foundation (ARF), in 1988, when I was 3 years old. As far as I or anyone I’ve asked has been able to establish, it was one of the first documentaries about intentional communities ever made on video. Now, anyone can watch it.
My dad’s ARF was charged with the mission to research how the planet could have a positive future. The main finding was that humans needed to return to communal living, which they had evolved with until recently. Large societies breed anomie, distrust, lack of love, and capture by psychopaths.
This film was originally distributed the only way a Philadelphia nonprofit with an offset press in the dining room could distribute anything: duplicated by hand and mailed out on VHS tapes to whoever sent a donation. It ends with the pitch — five copies and a newsletter subscription for…
