Last Hippie Standing is a documentary DVD directed by Marcus Robbin, which takes a close look at the masses of hippies who travelled to Goa, India, in the late sixties and early seventies.
It is a testament to the search for spirituality and freedom in the land of the so-called Guru’s, Saddhu’s, and Swami’s. It is an ode to a different way of living, and it certainly gives an insight into the minds of a handful of the contributors about why they chose to emigrate to the paradise that is Goa.
Throughout the 45 minutes, we are taken on a journey through the eyes of the first wave of hippies that left their native shores in search of the hippie ideal in India. We explore the counter-culture through interwoven un-released super-8 footage of what Goa was like in the early seventies, comparing it with the dance culture that it spawned in the recent past and modern day.
The documentary is very well put together and it really does get into the heart of why so many went to India, and indeed why they still do so. It unravels what it was that they went to find, and subsequently what they found, embracing an ethic that is almost lost in the modern world, but not quite.
Whether a hippie, wanting to see the past, or a rave lord, wanting to experience the now, Last Hippie Standing is a perfect slice of film making, showing the union that turned a once quiet paradise from hippie Mecca into techno Heaven.
For more info visit: http://www.lasthippiestanding.de and http://www.merlins-nose.com
Reviewed by Albert Pollard