Ken Kesey’s Long, Strange Trip: An Interview with director Alex Gibney

Tony Kay — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 21:27:22 +0000

Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place (screening for SIFF at the Egyptian at 3:15 p.m.) chronicles the infamous, LSD-fueled cross-country bus tour undertaken by author Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters in 1964, winnowing down some 40 hours of the Pranksters' 16mm footage to a little under two hours. On the face of it, this latest effort sounds like a nostalgic detour from the hard-hitting work that's made Gibney's reputation. But he and co-director Alison Ellwood combine the footage with spoken accounts from the Pranksters and impeccably-executed re-enactment sequences to create a wholly-immersive road movie.

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Ken Kesey’s Long, Strange Trip: An Interview with director Alex Gibney