Behind the Red Curtain

Experimental film directed by and starring Richard Beymer

Actor and filmmaker Richard Beymer’s documentary film, A Regular Bouquet: Mississippi Summer (1964) offers a rare portrait of segregated Mississippi during this historically significant time in American History. Beymer was one of the few filmmakers to spend significant time working with Freedom Summer volunteers from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). As a result, other documentary filmmakers frequently seek his footage. Most recently, filmmaker Stanley Nelson relied heavily on A Regular Bouquet when completing his film, Freedom Summer, which premiered in June 2014 on PBS. Beymer’s footage was also included in Henry Hampton’s seminal documentary series, Eyes on the Prize (1987). Featured in episode five, Mississippi: Is This America? (1962-1964), Hampton combined stock footage and first-hand accounts to retell the events of Freedom Summer.

Short documentary about the making of Twin Peaks: The Return.

Richard Beymer first met David Lynch when Lynch cast him as Ben Horne in the series Twin Peaks. Years later, Lynch saw one of Richard's documentaries on the founder of Transcendental Meditation, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and asked him to come to India to document a journey he was making tracing Maharishi's footsteps from one end of India to the other. This film is not just a record of their 10-day journey, it's also a rare and personal look at David Lynch "unplugged."