In the fall of 2000, I traveled to Russia to make a documentary film about a farm that my brother had been working at for the previous 5 years. A Camphill Village, where half of the residents were disabled. I spent a couple weeks filming, and 10 months writing and editing, and then the film was released to good reviews and success. It was selected for the prestigious Ojai International Film Festival, and was picked up by the venerable Berkeley Fine Arts Theatre for a week long run. It played other film festivals and helped raise money for the Russian farm and village.
The film was also released on VHS (the format of the day), and many copies were sold, and local video stores in Berkeley displayed them proudly in their independent features library. But VHS, and independent theatres, are gone the way of the dinosaurs. We are just now witnessing the eclipse of DVD’s and the dawn of downloading.
Svetlana Village: The Camphill Experience in Russia is now available on DVD and via download! Restored to the full digital glory which it was originally captured with! Own a DVD your family will cherish for generations, or instantly download it to your favorite viewing device! All proceeds from downloads and DVD sales go directly to Svetlana Village, so you can watch a good movie and do a good deed at the same time! (Update 04/25/2021 – DVD and download are no longer available – watch online on Vimeo)