Paty Baum

MY PARENTS wanted me to go to MLC, so I transferred there in 1971 from Fernwood Elementary School, in my 8th grade year. I didn't really know anyone except some kids I had been with at Riverdale School. I mostly hung out in Ehrick Wheeler's room (my base station) or in B1 with the cool, arty kids. Betty Mayther never judged anyone; all were welcome there, dirty, tired, hungry, wet or stoned. By choice, I left after two years to attend John Adams HS. I credit my resourcefulness, lifelong learning capacity and love of the outdoors to my brief time at MLC, where anything and everything was possible. After that, I wholeheartedly pursued my interests in photography and music, shooting photos and playing drums in the all-woman punk band Neo Boys (with MLC alumna Kimberly Kincaid). After jumping through many hoops I was finally given a show on KBOO Community Radio. I eventually became a sound recordist and worked on Gus Van Sant's independent production, Mala Noche.

Paty Baum

Paty tells her story in May 2025:

In 1989, I was accepted into San Francisco State University's film production program and went on to make my own films: 122 Webster (Sundance Film Festival selection, 1990), The Cleansing Machine (best documentary, Humboldt Film Festival, 1991), and Peace, Love, '92 (Lilla Jewel Award, 1992). The latter two were shot in Portland with non-professional actors. I moved to Baja Sur, Mexico, in 1995, to surf and enjoy 365 days of sunshine, but I always kept in touch with my MLC classmates.

In 2003 I decided to do some interviews with MLC teachers and students, and was lucky enough to interview Amasa Gilman, Emil Abramovic, Betty Mayther, John Morrison and others. These interviews were edited into the documentary MLC, The Early Years, and I still have them in their unedited form.

I believe that anyone who attended or worked at MLC has a compelling story to tell about their experience. MLC'ers are a tribe of unique individuals who are bound by the philosophy that we know what we want and are capable of (self) realizing our wishes and dreams.

[Paty's on-camera interviews with nine MLC students attending the 2018 50th Anniversary celebration, as well as four of the 2003 interviews she used in her documentary, can be viewed from this website—as can footage from a wall-mounted camera Paty helped arrange and set up at the 50th.]