Watch Chappaqua (1966) Free Online

Release Date: 1966

Cast: Paula Pritchett, Allen Ginsberg, Ornette Coleman, Ravi Shankar, Swami Satchidananda, Moondog & The London Saxophonic, William S. Burroughs, Jill Lator, Jean-Louis Barrault, Conrad Rooks

Categories: Movies, Experimental film, Avant-garde

Chappaqua is a 1966 cult film written, directed by and starring Conrad Rooks. The films is based on Rooks' experiences with drug addiction and includes cameo appearances by a host of famous figures of the 1960s: author William S. Burroughs, guru Swami Satchidananda, beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Moondog, and Ravi Shankar (who co-wrote the score with Philip Glass). Rooks had commissioned jazz artist Ornette Coleman to compose music for the film, but his score, which has become known as the Chappaqua Suite was ultimately not used. Coleman too makes a cameo appearance in the film. The Fugs... MORE

Chappaqua is a 1966 cult film written, directed by and starring Conrad Rooks. The films is based on Rooks' experiences with drug addiction and includes cameo appearances by a host of famous figures of the 1960s: author William S. Burroughs, guru Swami Satchidananda, beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Moondog, and Ravi Shankar (who co-wrote the score with Philip Glass). Rooks had commissioned jazz artist Ornette Coleman to compose music for the film, but his score, which has become known as the Chappaqua Suite was ultimately not used. Coleman too makes a cameo appearance in the film. The Fugs also appeared in the film. The film briefly depicts its namesake, Chappaqua, New York, a sleepy hamlet in Westchester County, in a few minutes of wintry panoramas. In the film, the hamlet is an overt symbol of drug-free suburban childhood innocence. It also serves as one of the film's many nods to Native American culture. The northern Westchester area had once been heavily inhabited by Native Americans; the word chappaqua itself derives from the Wappinger (a nation of the Algonquian peoples) word for 'laurel swamp.' LESS