MovieChat Forums > Berkeley (2007) Discussion > Any Information? (possible spoilers)

Any Information? (possible spoilers)


Curious if anyone knows anything about this film? Will this be mainstream or festival based? Plotline?

I'm pretty sure this was the film I was cast as a hippie/anti-draft extra while they were filming on the USC campus. Scene I was in, couple guys (wish I could figure out if they are any of the cast listed in this film's details) were burning a draft card in a lobby full of hippies (me included). Suddenly, cops burst into the room and start beating us all down. That was the extent of my role - to get my ass kicked.

All the big people on location said the film was for Sundance, but I have yet to find any indication that it made it through to the festival or otherwise.

Here's an email blurb to me and acouple friends who were there from the lady who casted us on spot:

"BERKELEY FINAL SHOOTING DATES THIS WEEKEND

Hi Everybody,

Thanks so much for your participation to date in BERKELEY. The film is looking so good, and the theme is so contemporary and vital, we're sure it'll be at Sundance and wind up playing everywhere.

Our last days of shooting are this weekend, and we really need your ongoing support here for some fun scenes.

Here's the schedule:
SATURDAY 7/31 @ USC CAMPUS, PHYS ED BLDG.(park in PARKING STRUCTURE 3 at McCarthy and Figueroa, on the eastern edge of campus. After you park, walk towards the center of campus, perpendicular to the Figueroa. Go South when you get to Trousdale and then turn right on Childs Way. The Phys Ed building will be on your right, across from the track. Maps of the campus can be obtained from the parking booth when you enter the campus.)

7AM -12 Or you can stay longer we hope!
For Draft Induction Physical scenes
20 young men (in boxers + t-shirts/tanks: white preferably but color OK)
1 nurse
2 soldiers
1 Hispanic inductee
1 redhead inductee

11- 5 Class registration scenes:
35 students (hippies and straighter)
2 black panthers for recruitment table
2 professors
2 drummers

5 –7:30 Statistics class
8 guys, 7 girls

SUNDAY 8/1 @ USC CAMPUS, MUDD HALL OF PHILOSOPHY,

Trousdale Path at Exposition Blvd. Please park on Figuerora St.
7 – 12 AM Poetry classroom scene:
50 students (hippies and straighter)
9 AM 2 professors

Thanks a million!
-Ellary Eddy"

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No idea about the plot or anything, but one look at the extras list (draft inductees, black panthers, students, profs, and DRUMMERS) and it looks like they're bringing in the whole circus!

Spent a summer in Berkeley in the 80's. A lot of things have changed, but there's still an air of the 60's lingering there. And they got the world's best d*mn hot dogs right off campus!!!

I hear People's Park is a parking lot now? Tell me it ain't so.

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People's Park is not a parking lot. Although they did put in basketball courts.

Yay, Top Dog!

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Kewl. The homeless can get some exercise now.

Mmmmmm....Top Dog.....huh-uh-huh...

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more like the worst college street ball you've ever seen.

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It's playing at this year's Berkeley Video & Film Festival. The synopsis from their program is as follows:

Berkeley is the story of Ben Sweet (Nick Roth), and 18yr-old middle class boy who comes to UC Berkeley in 1968 to study accounting and avoid the draft. There begins an odyssey through sex, drugs, rock and roll, and political activism which turns his conservative world upside down, and leaves him on a path of exploration and self-discovery, far from the life of his father, Sy (Henry Winkler).

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