More than a few concerts were marred by fan deaths.īut this warm, embracing little film - catching up with old friends from “the road,” remembering epic road trips following the band, chatting with other, even-more-devoted fans and even the director of another Deadhead documentary - vividly creates a sense of the community that the band inspired, with its own economy, values and shared creed. And they downplay the tragedies at Dead shows. There’s a Dead-ish twangy score that could have been made by “the family” in “the parking lot scene,” the musical street fair/festival/market fans nicknamed “Shakedown Street.” She and her interview subjects skate past the druggy nature of the culture, underplaying it to a disingenuous degree. It doesn’t have Grateful Dead music or concert footage in it. Lonnie Frazier’s “Box of Rain” isn’t definitive. If Deadheads aren’t an “American Experience” waiting to be remembered, I don’t know what is. ![]() ![]() But personal essays like “Box of Rain,” movies about the fan experience, the phenomenon of the “family” - their tribal, migrant fanbase - point to a serious blindspot on the Brit soap opera-obsessed Public Broadcasting Service. PBS is never going to produce an “American Masters” documentary on The Grateful Dead.
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