Documentary · History

The Fallbrook Story

"The Fallbrook Story" (1952) is a short subject film that told the story of a water rights battle between the citizens of the Fallbrook, California area and the federal government.

“The Fallbrook Story,” is a 20-minute film of Cold War-era uneasiness in which director Frank Capra rails against what he calls the evils of Big Bureaucracy. In 1951, Capra lived in Fallbrook, California on his 1,000-acre Red Mountain Ranch farm filled with olive groves. The federal government, which had purchased the old Rancho Santa Margarita land in 1941 to build Camp Pendleton, was concerned that ranchers upstream would take or pollute the Santa Margarita River, which ran through Camp Pendleton. Capra’s film documents how Fallbrook residents fought back against the federal government.