The best Jerry Garcia’s documentary movies
We present our ranking of the best Jerry Garcia’s movies. Do you love cinema? Or are you looking for a movie of your favorite actor to watch tonight? Surely you have some to see or that you did not know yet about Jerry Garcia.
Gimme Shelter
7.8/10
The landmark documentary about the tragically ill-fated Rolling Stones free concert at Altamont Speedway on December 6, 1969. Only four months earlier, Woodstock defined the Love Generation; now it lay in ruins on a desolate racetrack six miles outside of San Francisco.
Woodstock
8.1/10
An intimate look at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival held in Bethel, NY in 1969, from preparation through cleanup, with historic access to insiders, blistering concert footage, and portraits of the concertgoers; negative and positive aspects are shown, from drug use by performers to naked fans sliding in the mud, from the collapse of the fences by the unexpected hordes to the surreal arrival of National Guard helicopters with food and medical assistance for the impromptu city of 500,000.
Festival Express
7.4/10
The filmed account of a large Canadian rock festival train tour boasting major acts. In the summer of 1970, a chartered train crossed Canada carrying some of the world's greatest rock bands. The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Buddy Guy, and others lived (and partied) together for five days, stopping in major cities along the way to play live concerts. Their journey was filmed.
Magic Trip
6.8/10
A freewheeling portrait of Ken Kesey and the Merry Prankster’s fabled road trip across America in the legendary Magic Bus. In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip to the New York World’s Fair. He was joined by “The Merry Band of Pranksters,” a renegade group of counterculture truth-seekers, including Neal Cassady, the American icon immortalized in Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and the driver and painter of the psychedelic Magic Bus.
Long Strange Trip
8.2/10
The tale of the Grateful Dead is inspiring, complicated, and downright messy. A tribe of contrarians, they made art out of open-ended chaos and inadvertently achieved success on their own terms. Never-before-seen footage and interviews offer this unprecedented and unvarnished look at the life of the Dead.
Grateful Dawg
7.2/10
Jerry Garcia, legendary lead guitarist for the Grateful Dead and David Grisman, virtuoso mandolinist and founder of "Dawg" music… Now, for the first time ever, the musical matrimony and extraordinary friendship of Garcia and Grisman is traced in the award-winning documentary Grateful Dawg.
Hells Angels Forever
6.1/10
What starts off as a squadron of American daredevil bombers in World War II, branded by society as renegades, turns into a revealing ride into the world of honor, violence, and undying passion for motorcycles on the road.
All Tomorrow's Parties
7/10
All Tomorrow's Parties is a 2009 documentary film directed by All Tomorrow's People and Jonathan Caouette covering the history of the long running All Tomorrow's Parties music festival. Described as a "post-punk DIY bricolage", the film was created using footage generated by the fans and musicians attending the events themselves, on a multitude of formats including Super8, camcorder and mobile phone. All Tomorrow's People is a name representing the contributions of these attendees.
The Grateful Dead Movie
7.9/10
Released in 1977 and directed by Jerry Garcia, is a film that captures performances from the Grateful Dead's October 1974 five-night stand at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. This end-of-tour run marked the beginning of an extended hiatus for the band, with no shows planned for 1975. The movie also faithfully portrays the burgeoning Deadhead scene. The film features the "Wall of Sound" concert sound system that the Dead used for all of 1974.
Big Family: The Story of Bluegrass Music
Examine the history of bluegrass music, from its origins to its eventual worldwide popularity, and hear from dozens of musicians who explain the ways bluegrass music transcends generational, cultural and geographic boundaries.
Bill Monroe: Father of Bluegrass Music
7.9/10
No single figure in American music so dominated a genre as did Bill Monroe with bluegrass. BILL MONROE: FATHER OF BLUEGRASS MUSIC features performances by Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys, Lester Flatt, Emmylou Harris, Paul McCartney, the Osborne Brothers, Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, John Hartford and a once-in-a-lifetime Blue Grass Boys reunion featuring Del McCoury, Chubby Wise and Bill Keith. The film features archival footage and rare 1990s performances from Monroe's final years including many of the greatest songs from his six decades of recording.
Deadheads
Covering 10 years, this 60 minute art documentary takes an inside look at the artisans, magicians, musicians, and lunatics that make up this cult of devotees, deadicated to a band that originated in 1965. Why these fans leave their schools, families and jobs to be part of these ritualistic tribal celebrations of dance, drugs and community, is a 20th century American cultural phenomenon captured here in this time capsuled video tape.
Grateful Dead: Sunshine Daydream
Sunshine Daydream is a concert film starring the Grateful Dead. On a blistering summer day in 1972, the Grateful Dead took the stage on the grounds of the Oregon Country Fair in Veneta, Oregon. for what would become one of the most legendary concerts of the band’s storied history. Considered to be the Merry Pranksters last "Acid Test", the concert offers a snapshot of the band at the peak of its playing prowess. The setlist that day included memorable performance of "Sugaree, " "Deal, " "Black-Throated Wind, " "Greatest Story Ever Told, " "Bird Song" and a mind-melting version of "Dark Star" that stretches over 30 minutes. The show, which was recorded and filmed but never released, has since become the most-requested live show in Grateful Dead history. A digitally remastered and reedited official version of the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 17, 2013.
In Our Eyes: The European Deadhead Odyssey
Rarely seen unofficial Grateful Dead documentary short. Filmed on the road in Europe, 1990.
Grateful Dead: Anthem to Beauty
7.5/10
This installment of the Classic Albums series follows the making of two Grateful Dead albums, the fiercely experimental Anthem of the Sun and the understated masterwork American Beauty, which spawned melodic gems like "Sugar Magnolia" and "Ripple." Between the archival scenes and contemporary interviews with band members, the DVD shows a band making seismic inroads in pop music--and five young guys coming to terms with artistry, mortality, and, yes, the pursuit of happiness. There is priceless footage of Neal Cassady driving Ken Kesey's bus and of the Dead, surrounded by martini-sipping hipsters, on Playboy After Dark. The best scenes involve band members talking about specific songs (you will never hear Phil Lesh's "Box of Rain" again without thinking of it as a gift to his dying father) or deconstructing a tune by playing each track separately. Intimate and surprisingly cohesive, Anthem to Beauty is a rare glimpse into how the Dead's magic was made.
DEADHEADS
This project was done with humor, truth, and sarcasm. At the University of California, Santa Cruz, UCSC, where I went to college, there were many fans of The Grateful Dead. They called themselves Deadheads. I had not heard of the band before attending the school. I listened to the music, and I didn't understand why people felt so passionately about the band. I was intrigued. So in 1986, I decided to try and understand these people and the music they loved, and to create a video of my quest. This documentary project is the result. Enjoy.
Grateful Dead: So Far
8/10
So Far is a music documentary video by the Grateful Dead. Directed by Jerry Garcia and Len Dell'Amico, it is intended to give a subjective view of the Grateful Dead experience. The soundtrack includes Dead song performances, largely from 1985. The visuals combine scenes of the band playing the songs, other Dead related material, computer animation, and found footage that has been altered and edited in various ways. So Far was released on VHS videotape and on laserdisc in 1987, and has a running time of 55 minutes.
Conversations With The Deadheads
Recorded on Shakedown Street in Albany, NY during Grateful Dead's Summer Tour, 1992.
Grateful Dead: Downhill from Here
8.4/10
Grateful Dead show on July 17, 1989 at Alpine Valley.
Grateful Dead: Cornell '77
A short documentary about the Grateful Dead's legendary May 8, 1977 show at Barton Hall at Cornell University.
