REVIEWS & ARTICLES


“Women’s Happytime Commune: New departures in women’s films”, Ann Kaplan. Jump Cut, no. 9, 1975, pp. 9-http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC09folder/WomensHappytmCom.html
“Now They Have Funky Westerns”, New York Times, November1972 review by Vincent Canby.

“…Their leader—raucously played by Roberta Hodes, more or less as a backwoods Bella Abzug—has visions of an idyllic society where women will live in perfect freedom (i.e., without undergarments) until the age of 82, when they will be recycled as eggplants or sesame seeds, as their fancy dictates. But her followers lack her idealism, and, dissatisfied with growing corn in the country, they begin to think of turning the commune into a dance hall, with paying customers. By the end of the movie, the future looks very dark.”

 
Ms. Magazine 1972:

“funny, ambling, offhandedly lyrical, this original film allows a group of wonderfully idiosyncratic women to improvise characters close to their real and fantasy lives…above all excellent for sharing warm feelings in a group and for stimulating discussions of reform vs. radical feminism.

 
Women’s Wear Daily 1972, review by Daphne Davis.

“A Warholesque frolic”

 

Women and Film 1972 review by Julie Lesage, 1972

“Wacky, irreverent and yet sympathetic. The zaniest feminist farce I’ve ever seen.

 
Women & Film: International Festival (Toronto) 1973

“some great comments about men, women and the pros and cons of living with either”.

 

From Vassar Quarterly: https://news.hrvh.org/veridian/cgi-bin/senylrc?a=d&d=vcmisc19740419-01.2.21 

 

Underground Film Journal listing; 1972: http://www.undergroundfilmjournal.com/underground-yearbook-1972 

 

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Kathy Geritz writes:

“Sheila Paige’s virtually unknown Women’s Happy Time Commune (47 mins, Color, 16mm) is an uneven but fascinating precursor to the recent Strangers in Good Company. Paige describes it as “an anarchic, unconventional movie in which the Old West is the stomping ground for a motley crew of young and middle-aged women who are considering banding together to form a commune.” The secret of this woman’s cinema is the unusual amount of screen-time given to the time of women talking, ranging over diverse topics but always circling back to the possibility of a happy time living without men.”