Chappaqua (film)

Chappaqua
Directed by	Conrad Rooks
Produced by	Conrad Rooks
Written by	Conrad Rooks
Starring	Jean-Louis Barrault William S. Burroughs Allen Ginsberg Swami Satchidananda Ornette Coleman
Music by	Ravi Shankar
Cinematography	Étienne Becker Robert Frank Eugen Schüfftan
Edited by	Kenout Peltier
Production company	Minotaur
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	November 5, 1967 (1967-11-05)
Running time	82 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Chappaqua is a 1967 cult film written and directed by Conrad Rooks. The film is based on Rooks' experiences with drug addiction and includes cameo appearances by William S. Burroughs, Swami Satchidananda, Allen Ginsberg, Moondog, Ornette Coleman, The Fugs, and Ravi Shankar. Rooks had commissioned Coleman to compose music for the film, but his score, which has become known as the Chappaqua Suite was not used. Ravi Shankar then composed a score.

The film briefly depicts Chappaqua, New York, a 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 word "chappaqua" derives from the Wappinger (a nation of the Algonquian peoples) word for "laurel swamp."

Cast

• Jean-Louis Barrault as Dr. Benoit
• Conrad Rooks as Russel Harwick
• William S. Burroughs as Opium Jones
• Allen Ginsberg as Messie
• Ravi Shankar as Dieu du Soleil
• Paula Pritchett as Water Woman
• Ornette Coleman as Peyote Eater
• Swami Satchidananda as The Guru
• Moondog as The Prophet
• Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg, Ken Weaver and three others as The Fugs
• Rita Renoir
• Hervé Villechaize
• Penny Brown as the nurse

External links

• Chappaqua at the Internet Movie Database
• "Conrad Rooks's Chappaqua Is a Therapeutic Travelogue of the Unconscious" New York Times review, November 6, 1967
• Review of Chappaqua at Mondo Digital
• Baumann Graphik (movie poster, German theatrical release 1998)