Chappaqua (film)

This article is about the film; for the hamlet, see Chappaqua, New York.

Chappaqua
Directed by	Conrad Rooks
Written by	Conrad Rooks
Starring	Conrad Rooks Jean-Louis Barrault William S. Burroughs Swami Satchidananda Allen Ginsberg Moondog Ravi Shankar Ornette Coleman Paula Pritchett The Fugs
Music by	Ravi Shankar Philip Glass
Release date(s)	November 5, 1967 (USA)
Running time	82 mins
Country	USA
Language	English

Chappaqua is a 1966 cult film written, directed by and starring Conrad Rooks. The films is based on Rooks' experiences with drug addiction and includes cameo appearances by a host of famous figures of the 1960s: author William S. Burroughs, guru Swami Satchidananda, beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Moondog, and Ravi Shankar (who co-wrote the score with Philip Glass). Rooks had commissioned jazz artist Ornette Coleman to compose music for the film, but his score, which has become known as the Chappaqua Suite was ultimately not used. Coleman too makes a cameo appearance in the film. The Fugs also appeared in the film.

The film briefly depicts its namesake, Chappaqua, New York, a sleepy 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 northern Westchester area had once been heavily inhabited by Native Americans; the word chappaqua itself derives from the Wappinger (a nation of the Algonquian peoples) word for 'laurel swamp.'

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)

Awards
Preceded by Simon of the Desert, I Am Twenty and Modiga Mindre Män	Special Jury Prize, Venice 1966 tied with Yesterday Girl	Succeeded by La Cina è vicina and La Chinoise