As the filmmakers trained their camera on the town's populace, a treasure trove of long forgotten tales came tumbling forth. The year was 1969, and Livermore, California — an eclectic mix of ranchers and newly arrived nuclear physicists and suburbanites — was celebrating its 100th anniversary while adjusting to a booming population increase. Flush with town pride, civic leaders buried a Centennial Time Capsule. But when it was time to uncover the capsule thirty years later, no one could find the burial spot. How can a town with one of the nation’s top nuclear research laboratories “misplace” a simple metal box? As Rachel Raney says, "it seemed like a powerful if subtle metaphor of a town losing its identity."

That’s just the beginning of this surreal and amusing trip to a misleadingly typical Northern California town. LIVERMORE digs deeper into collective memories and unearths a peculiar set of stories: a supernatural light bulb, a cursed totem pole and a scandalous photo collection — local photographer Bill Owens’s art-world sensation, Suburbia, based on pictures of his friends and neighbors. When the search effort for the missing time capsule reaches a fever pitch, nuclear-strength radar and space-age probes replace shovels and pick axes. Just as the town begins to despair, the old-timers race to the rescue. Interviews with residents such as painter Tilli Calhoun, artist Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall and town historian Barry Schrader inadvertently unravel Livermore's hidden past through anecdotes, histories and local legends.

In an age of megastores, suburban sprawl and coast-to-coast homogenization, LIVERMORE is a testament to the power of preservation and a celebration of old-fashioned civic pride.

Find out more about the people in the film.

Learn about Livermore, the city, yesterday and today.