Directed by Terry Nowak. This early film about the Southern California Renaissance Fair, with Les Blank as cameraman, is shot in sensuous detail on a 16mm Bell & Howell camera. It is apparent in this early work that Blank was already developing his own unique style of shooting. Film to tape transfer of a scratchy work print copy is all that remains of the original film. Filmed 1963-64.
In 1966 a few eccentric Berkeley college students got together to recreate the last tournament of the Golden Age of Chivalry. Today their legacy lives on in an international organization known as the Society for Creative Anachronism where lords and ladies, knights and artisans create an intricate subculture that even pervades the participants' real lives. Honor and chivalry are the words of the day, but each member struggles to find their own meaning and way amidst the social dynamics that are inherent in any large group. "In Service to the Dream" chronicles a 9-month span in the lives of the populace of the kingdom of Caid, where kings and queens rise and fall, but thousands of people all seem to march to the beats of similar drums.
