Lee Felsenstein

This documentary tells the forgotten stories of some of the most influential personal computer pioneers in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the late 1960s, big mainframe computers owned by large corporations and the government were seen as tools of control. The Hippie movement and the anti-Vietnam war protests served as a hotbed for a revolutionary idea: creating an affordable home computer to be used by ordinary people as a counterbalance to Big Brother. Well, the rest is history, but what has happened to the early ideals and the initial ethos of free sharing? As one of the visionaries puts it: Its true that what I helped to create is todays establishment. Thats what I was trying to get rid of:the establishment.

From the 1950s to the present day, from Los Angeles to San Francisco via Berkeley University or Silicon Valley, this three-part documentary series unfolds the recent history of California, which is revolutionizing the world by its way of life and its incredible capacity for innovation.