Official Selection Telluride Film Festival 2025

“Summer Tour” - Feature Documentary

Directed by Mishca Richter

EP Chloe Sevigny

LD Entertainment

Easywind Productions

 

Few American demographics are more easily caricatured than Deadheads, those swirling, dosing, hippy-dressed vagabonds. But in his infinitely sweet and wise documentary, director Mischa Richter offers us the Deadheads as complex, self-aware and resourceful members of a wandering commune, one that's admirable for its kindness and care. Our central subjects, Jerry and Annie, set off in their van to follow Dead and Co.—the most recent successor to the original band—on its final tour. They make just enough money busking (Jerry, of course, is a gifted guitarist) to get by. With editing by Jay Rabinowitz, SUMMER TOUR flows along like a Dead song, riffing and jamming and offering tiny sparks of delight along the way. As it progresses, the film presents a certain irresistible logic to the Deadhead way of life. At a moment when the modern world is spinning into uncertain social, political, environmental and technological terrain, perhaps we should all get on the bus. -JS

FROM THE TELLURIDE PROGRAM