I just got The Trial of Billy Jack from Netflix the other day—for cold, nefarious reasons far to horrifying to contemplate—and I was wondering: can anyone tell me where they filmed the “Freedom School” scenes, at? It looks like a low, southwestern-style compound, with a distinctive A-frame arch/bell stand. (At least, I think it has a bell in it—and that’s the best picture I could find, online. I can probably take a DVD screencap, if need be.)
Can any film buffs (or hippie anthropologists) enlighten me?
IMDB gives the following filming Locations for The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) :
Bandelier National Monument - 15 Entrance Road, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Chinle, Arizona, USA
Eaves Movie Ranch - 105 Rancho Alegre Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Monument Valley, Utah, USA
Old Tucson - 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Santa Clara Pueblo, Santa Clara, New Mexico, USA
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
I checked the Eaves Movie Ranch—it looks like an “Old West”-style townlet. Which is cool, by itself, but it doesn’t look like the “school” shown in the film.
WAG: It may have been a temporary set built at the ranch.
Sant Clara Pueblo is the other possibility.
I’ve been to Old Tucson and it doesn’t look like that.
**The Freedom School is (was) the Fenster School of Southern Arizona located at 8500 E. Ocotillo Dr, Tucson. I attended Fenster after the filming.
In 1975, Headmaster Kenneth Fenster filed suit and was awarded $170,000 when the producers failed to included the school in the movies credits.
When I attended Fenster, it was much like the fictional Freedom School complete with hippy, motorcycling, pot smoking teachers.
The A-frame bell arch and the courtyard, fireplace and flagpole are prominent in the scenes however, the film is tightly edited and other sets/locations are interspersed with Fensters location. For example, the church which appears to be right on campus is nowhere near the Fentser property.
This is how the courtyard looks today: https://cdn5.sussexdirectories.com/rms/rms_photos/sized/62/55/105562-514334-1_1500x1500.jpg?pu=1450209542
Hey - my brother and I attended that school in the early part of 1973 and everything you said about it is 100% correct. We actually were only there because my parents were moving to Brazil (dad’s work) and we didn’t want to go…but we only managed to stay for about a month. My brother was in town with several other students and they got busted for shoplifting. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my brother had an ounce of weed in his sock so the school and the law said if we dropped out and left they wouldn’t press charges, so we left and ended up moving to Brazil with my parents. As it turned out, me going to Brazil ended up being one of the best experiences of my entire life. Oh one last comment: I had gotten caught on the girls side a couple of times so they didn’t like me there either. Anyway - I’ll never forget that place…incredible and as you said crazy!
