CALIFORNIA STATE OF MIND tells the story of how one man rose against seemingly insurmountable obstacles and shaped the future of modern California. Rather than lionizing Brown as "the Architect of the Golden State," the film looks critically at Pat Brown`s odyssey to build a "Super State," raising issues that transcend eras and geographic borders. As the Vietnam War shifts the nation`s consciousness, Brown is caught in the middle of the cataclysmic 1960s, with the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, fiery race riots in Los Angeles, and the United Farm Workers Movement in the Central Valley. Brown`s epic battle against capital punishment unleashes an international uproar. Finally, a telegenic Ronald Reagan steps onto the world stage promising to sweep all that away. Brown`s tenure ends as a new "era of limits" begins.