The Old Monterey Foundation and the Marcia DeVoe Lecture Series presents a free screening of the 60-year-old documentary film "Big Sur: The Way It Was" along with a talk by local cinematographer Bob Franco, on Thursday, April 10, 6pm-7:30pm at Irvine Auditorium in the McCone Building on the campus of Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

About the Film

"Big Sur: The Way It Was” is the first major documentary made about Big Sur, it’s natural beauty, artistic community, and counter cultural ways. The documentary was made by Robert Blaisdell, a filmmaker native to the Monterey Peninsula, who shot the footage of Big Sur and its inhabitants throughout the 1960s.

The documentary, narrated by Doug McClure, includes interviews with writers, artists, and intellectuals such as Henry Miller, Eric Barker, Emil White, Harry Dick Ross, and Ephraim Donner as well as hippies, musicians, bikers, hitchhikers, tourists, and the everyday rugged individualists who called Big Sur home in the 1960s.

About Bob Franco

Bob Franco is a photographer and cinematographer who grew up in Del Rey Oaks and currently lives in Pacific Grove. He worked with filmmaker Robert Blaisdell to bring this 60-year old film to life.