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Here Comes Everybody is a highly revealing cinema-verite film about an encounter group session at the Esalen Institute in Bug Sur. California. The sixteen people involved in the week-long session were aware of it being filmed, but Whitmore seems to have been able lo capture the genuine atmosphere of an encounter group, by mostly filming from behind masked walls.
Doctor William Schutz. founder of the Esalen Institute, is the focal point of the film. The validity of his techniques is plausibly demonstrated. A housewife, for example, takes off her clothes to show why she thinks her body is ugly, then breaks down and cries. A husband who moves to comfort his crying wife is restrained by members of the group, who point out that he is always taken in. By the end of the film. Whitmore has created a real sympathy for the people participating in the session.