
Directing
Born February 9, 1941 · Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
Ben Van Meter began making films and light shows in the mid-1960s in San Francisco and soon became a leading figure in Bay Area-underground filmmaking. His films, especially S.F. Trips Festival, An Opening (1966) and the epic Acid Mantra or Rebirth of a Nation (1968), are compelling attempts to visually and sonically inscribe psychedelia, as experience and philosophy, in the medium of film. Van Meter’s films were unavailable for many years, but their ongoing restoration by the Academy Film Archive and their inclusion in the de Young Museum’s 2017 exhibition, The Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock ‘n’ Roll, has gained them a new audience.
The Saga of Macrame Park
1974
Set Your Chickens Free!
1974
Homegrown
1971
Krishna's March to the Sea
1971
Interrogation
1970
Boc Ging
1970
Naked Zodiac
1969
Vivid Color 3D Nude Models
1969
Steve Miller Blues Band
1968
Garden of Proserpine
1968
Acid Mantra
1968
Make Love Not War
1967

For Life, Against the War
1967

Nico
1967
Me & Bruce & Art
1967
BE
1967

S.F. Trips Festival: An Opening
1966
Acid Camp
1966
Up Tight, L.A. Is Burning... Shit!
1965
Some Don't
1965
Bolex Peyote Bardo
1965

Colorfilm
1965

The Poon-Tang Trilogy
1964