Svetlana Village: The Camphill Experience in Russia
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	Russia, Organic farming, mental disability, physical disability, special needs, community living, communal living

Film Overview

Directed By: Gunnar Madsen View Official Website	Running Time: 0:44 Content Rating: GA (General Audience)	DVD Region: 1 - U.S., Canada, U.S. Territories Media Format: DVD-R Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Audio Language(s): English, Russian Subtitle Language(s): English
Genres: Documentary >> Health :: Documentary >> International :: Documentary >> General :: Health >> Physically Impaired :: Health >> Alternative Health :: Health >> Mental Illness Influences: Little Dieter Needs to Fly // 42 Up // Hoop Dreams // Jane Goodall: Reason for Hope // From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China // I Am a Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School // Genghis Blues // The Story of the Weeping Camel (Die Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel)

Synopsis

Ninety miles east of St. Petersburg in Russia, a small community of people is growing its own organic food and attracting a lot of attention from the neighbors and the government. The attention comes partly because their farm is successful, but mainly because nearly half of the residents of this community are developmentally disabled. These disabled people had been considered incapable of taking care of themselves before coming here. Now, living together with dedicated volunteers from Russia and around the world, they are working members of a remarkable pioneering community.

“Svetlana Village” is a stirring example of the benefit of including people of all abilities in our lives. The film profiles one week during the harvest of 2000. Winter is fast approaching. All the crops, including forty tons of potatoes, must be brought in, and a surprise invitation from the farmer's market offers them their first chance ever to sell their produce openly without mafia intervention. Overwhelmed, they ask for help from the local villages. Students from schools are given leave to help with the harvest, and neighbors pitch in with phenomenal generosity. In a land where economic and cultural opportunity is so limited, it is amazing to see how spirits soar.

All proceeds from the sale or download of this film go to Svetlana Village.

Crew

Director: Gunnar Madsen | bio
Gunnar Madsen is a composer, writer, actor, singer, and director. He’s written for the Minnesota Opera, Lincoln Center, Universal Pictures and National Public Radio; he has performed on The Tonight Show, the Smothers Brothers Show, PBS, BBC, and major stages in North America and Europe; he’s won nominations for a Grammy, a Bammy, and an Izzy, and awards from ASCAP, the LA Weekly, the LA Drama Critics Circle, the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, and UC Berkeley. He founded the internationally acclaimed acapella group The Bobs, and for ten years was a driving creative force in their success. His family CDs, "Old Mr. Mackle Hackle", “Ants in My Pants!” and "I'm Growing" have won virtually every major award for children's music. He provided the singing voice for the portrayal of Sammy Davis Jr. in the film "the Rat Pack", and his ravishing waltzes are featured throughout the 2nd season of HBO's "Sex and the City". He co-wrote the award-winning hit musical "The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World", which the NYTimes called "awe-inspiring". His documentary film about an organic farming community for mentally disabled people in Russia was an official selection of the Ojai International Film Festival. His picturebook "Old Mr. Mackle Hackle" (Little, Brown & Co.) is called "Ebullient" by the Horn Book, and he and his music are in the Vince Vaughan/Jennifer Aniston film "The Break Up".

Accolades

Festivals

Ojai Film Festival

Press Reviews

San Francisco Weekly | show/hide snippet
A genuinely inspiring and unsentimental portrait.
San Francisco Examiner | show/hide snippet
Heartwarming.
Contra Costa Times | show/hide snippet
Offers international truths about the mentally disabled. "Svetlana Village: The Camphill Experience in Russia" serves as an inspiring model for integrating the mentally disabled to become contributing members of society.