Faire: an american renaissance<---- mostly self-gratifying. . . often just lies

[SirBlackFox]

Watched the "Faire: an american renaissance" DVD and am NOT a fan. . . way too many inaccuracies and really biased against any non west coast faire. . . even though the Renaissance actually took place on the east coast of the US (after 1492 that is). . . ughhh.

All will be revealed in issue #4 of Faire Magazine in which all of the inaccuracies will be pointed out in the review section.

Unless you were a part of Agoura. . .  this DVD is not worth the plastic it's burned on.

[Carl Heinz]

I think the intent was to provide a historical background about the beginnings Faires in North America.  There are at least two instances that I recall where the spread of Faires was graphically displayed.

It also reflects the views of those being interviewed.  It is not scripted, but is an oral history with all the inherent accuracies and inaccuracies of such a presentation.  You may or may not agree with them.

It's a history of how Faire started in North America.  It's not a history of Faires in North America.  If that's what you're interested in, then it's worth buying.  If not, don't.

And, no, I've have nothing invested in it other than the purchase price nor am I associated with those who produced it.  I do know a number of folks who were interviewed and don't always agree with some of them.

[SirBlackFox]

It is not scripted, but is an oral history with all the inherent accuracies and inaccuracies of such a presentation.  

Why deliberately spread inaccuracies? That makes no sense. . . was there no editing?  We'll be following up the review of the "documentary" in a future issue of Faire Magazine, opening up lots of "cans of worms" about the loss of direction in the piece. Folks involved with the discussion will include faire owners, paytrons of the Agora faire, and the revelation of how the entire process became unraveled after Phyllis Patterson was no longer involved.

Of course, you have to get a subscription to read it (that's the catch).

[Carl Heinz]

For me, I thought there was too much focus on Hippie involvement and drugs.  That really doesn't doesn't cover those of us who were such things as VietNam vets and didn't camp.  We were just there to enjoy the day.

Many of the people in the DVD are no longer full time participants nor are some of them even attendees.  My guess is that the majority of the latter are what I call the Agouraphiles.  For some of these folks, it's not Faire if it's not at the Agoura site.  And, as I've said elsewhere, the site is the stage, but we're the Faire.  And, it's pretty much for this reason that I don't attend the annual pilgrimage.

I don't think Faires (plural) have lost their focus.  The focus has changed and the extent of that change depends on the event.  As I've also stated, there's still a historical background unless it's a fantasy event and I'm really not including those events in theis discussion.

I don't want to get into a discussion of the later days of the involvement of the Pattersons.  I'll leave that to others.

[Carl Heinz]

There were several factors involved in the transition of RPFS from a non-profit event.  I won't say that it became a profit event because it continued to loose money--I guess describing it as "for profit" might work.

At any rate, the loss of the Agoura site caused the folks at LHC (Living Histior Centre) to scramble around for a new site.  They found one at the Glen Helen park in Devore.  My guess is that this is around 100 miles east of the Agoura site.  (We had an 80 mile drive to Agoura and Devore was roughly 20 miles east of us.)

Many of the Agoura participants were unwilling to travel that distance and there was also quite a lot of turmoil over the loss of Agoura which might also have contributed.

RPFS had not been making a profit prior to the move and LHC was faced with the choice of selling RPFS or closing it.  Renaissance Entertainment Corp (REC) ended up buying it.  In an effort to at least break even experimentation was started in the show to try to increase the gate.  The participants who were willing to accept the changes stayed.  Those who weren't left.  Those of us who stayed did NOT forget that we were primarily historical reenactors and either worked around the changes or incorporated them.  And Lightning Scooter-Horse is probably one of the biggest anachronisms at RPFS.

At the time of the move to Devore, LHC also started a major recruiting drive for participants.  So they ended up with both a new site and many new participants.  (Many of these folks had been playtrons at Agoura.  Others, like myself, made the transition from booth worker to participant.  Some were just folks who lived near Devore and were interested in participating.)

I hope this gives some insight into why some of the folks in the DVD feel as they do.  I also suspect that there is a component of being sad that they are no longer the young folks that they were at Agoura.  But a lot of us have moved on and adapted.  Sue Honor's comment about her granddaughter being fourth generation is quite true.  And we still keep the old traditions alive if not  always as obvious.

For me, the DVD brings back some happy and sad memorie but that perspective probably isn't one shared by a lot of other forum members.

[Carl Heinz]

The Guild kickoff meeting was yesterday and the review was discussed.

Apparently at some point last year the folks producing the DVD had a parting of the way.  One of those folks started selling an early version which led to some legal wrangles.

If the picture of the DVD case shown in the review is that of the DVD used in the review, it's that earlier version.

If that's the case, this is probably the basis for our confusion.