Magic Trip

USA 2011, 107 minutes
Dir. Alex Gibney, Alison Ellwood
Rating: [M]
Genres: Documentary / Arts & Artists, Road Movie

Topics: Hippies & Psychedelia, Drugs & Alcohol.

“A hilarious, instructive and invaluable time capsule of that touching, idealistic and more than slightly ridiculous period.”~Philip French, Observer

Aroview: Recovering 16mm footage shot during the maiden voyage of the psychedelic 'Magic Bus', this documentary reassembles a visual snapshot of the legendary counter-cultural event, where Ken Kesey (author of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest') set off on a LSD-fuelled road trip to the New York World’s Fair.

Passengers included “The Merry Band of Pranksters,” a renegade group of counterculture truth-seekers, and Neal Cassady, American icon immortalised in Kerouac’s “On the Road”. A particular highlight is an animated sequence synchronized to an audio recording of one of Kesey's first LSD experiences while on a government research program.