Film Class Let Our Hippie Flags Fly

The Story Behind the Cross on the Ohio Hill

Image by Jan Alexander from Pixabay

“Do you think we’ll get arrested?” “I doubt it, but maybe we’ll make the evening news!”

I took my first film class in the Spring of my Sophomore year at a rural area state university in Northwest Ohio in 1972. The professor was a hippie, as were most of us. He gave us a very open-ended assignment for a short, black-and-white, 16mm silent film. We could add music via reel-to-reel tape, played separately to provide a soundtrack.

I had no idea what to do. So, my friends, my boyfriend, and I got stoned. Steve, a friend who had already written a play that used the names of towns going up I-75 for his characters (Ann Arbor was the heroine), was the one who first uttered the idea for the story. Everyone participated in the scripting and logistics. I directed, filmed, and edited the piece. After all, it was my project. Of the nine of us involved in this very communal activity, all but me were raised as Christians of one denomination or another. We all questioned religion, or we never could have done this.

Here’s how it fleshed out:

Our friend, Brian, who could be mistaken for most white representations of Jesus himself, with his long brown hair and beard, was the lead character. We filmed him dragging a large cross up…