About the Documentary

What happens when the home of the nation’s top nuclear research laboratory can’t unearth a simple time capsule?

When Rachel Raney and David Murray set out to create a film on suburban sprawl and the rise of “McTowns,” they never imagined the stories they’d find. The result is Livemore, part documentary, part fairytale, part mystery, and mostly comedy: a portrait of a formerly bucolic suburb threatened by rapid growth and change and the handful of eccentric old-timers struggling to hold on to what makes their piece of small-town America unique.

As the filmmakers trained their camera on the town’s populace, a treasure trove of long forgotten tales came tumbling forth. The year was 1969, and Livermore, California — an eclectic mix of ranchers and newly arrived nuclear physicists and suburbanites — was celebrating its 100th anniversary while adjusting to a booming population increase. Flush with town pride, civic leaders buried a Centennial Time Capsule. But when it was time to uncover the capsule thirty years later, no one could find the burial spot. How can a town with one of the nation’s top nuclear research laboratories “misplace” a simple metal box? As Rachel Raney says, “it seemed like a powerful if subtle metaphor of a town losing its identity.”

That’s just the beginning of this surreal and amusing trip to a misleadingly typical Northern California town. Livemore digs deeper into collective memories and unearths a peculiar set of stories: a supernatural light bulb, a cursed totem pole and a scandalous photo collection — local photographer Bill Owens’s art-world sensation, Suburbia, based on pictures of his friends and neighbors. When the search effort for the missing time capsule reaches a fever pitch, nuclear-strength radar and space-age probes replace shovels and pick axes. Just as the town begins to despair, the old-timers race to the rescue. Interviews with residents such as painter Tilli Calhoun, artist Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall and town historian Barry Schrader inadvertently unravel Livermore’s hidden past through anecdotes, histories and local legends.

In an age of megastores, suburban sprawl and coast-to-coast homogenization, Livemore is a testament to the power of preservation and a celebration of old-fashioned civic pride.

The Filmmakers

Rachel Raney
Rachel Raney works on both independent nonfiction films and documentaries for public television. In addition to LIVERMORE, she also produced and directed Toll Collector, a series of eight short films about these often maligned transportation workers. Raney has numerous broadcast credits as well. She co-produced two PBS documentaries: Presumed Guilty and The Celebrity and The City. Previously, Raney was a production manager and associate producer for the Center for Investigative Reporting, Inc., whose award-winning documentaries air regularly on the PBS series Frontline. She has worked on several Frontline documentaries including The Best Campaign Money Can Buy, The Heartbeat of America and Public Lands/Private Profits. She is currently working as the coordinating producer for the public television series, Frontline World.

David Murray
David Murray is a photographer, filmmaker and musician, as well as the art director at Video Arts, a San Francisco post-production facility. He has created the opening sequences and graphics for several documentaries and television programs including the ITVS series Digital Divide, KQED’s Intensity TV, Emiko Omori’s Rabbit in the Moon and ZDTV’s The Site. Murray’s independent documentary films include collaborations with Raney and Kolesnikow including LIVERMORE and Toll Collector, as well as several in-progress portraits of San Franciscan eccentrics.

Rama Kolesnikow
Rama Kolesnikow composes and produces music for films and commercials. After earning a degree in music composition from the University of Michigan in 1991, he worked as a composer and sound designer at Earwax Productions until 1995. He then worked independently until launching Pera Studios, a creative sound and music shop, in 2001. He is also a founding member, keyboardist and musical director of Super Diamond, a nationally touring rock band.

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