07/14/2025
Film about SDC gains worldwide acclaim
Movie focusing on opposition to development plans seeks to reflect ‘beauty and sacredness’ of valley
By Daniel Johnson sonoma Index-Tribune
It’s receiving international acclaim, winning awards and earning nominations for other honors at prestigious film festivals throughout the United States and beyond.
Yet the 25-minute film, “Small is Beautiful,” from award-winning Sonoma director Carolyn Scott, was modestly financed and focuses on a hyperlocal topic: public opposition to current development plans for the Sonoma Developmental Center’s 200-acre core campus in Eldridge.
“The film began as a local outcry, made on a shoestring budget,” Scott said. “To see it now screened internationally — and nominated alongside high-budget features — proves that grassroots stories can have a global impact. It validates citizen journalism and community filmmaking as powerful forces for change. This is a little film with a big story.”
Since the film’s release in 2024, it has received the Award of Merit in the 2024 Accolade Global Film Competition, based in La Jolla, California, and Best Score in the online 2025 Touchstone International Film Festival.
“These honors are deeply meaningful — not just for me — but for the community that entrusted me with their story,” Scott said. “From the beginning, our goal was to create a film that reflected the beauty and sacredness of the Valley of the Moon. Our drone cinematographer (Jim Codington) captured stunning aerial footage that underscored what’s truly at stake. And the Best Score award is a tribute to the ability of our composer (Carly Miller) to translate the emotional depth of this struggle into music.”
The short film was nominated for top honors in the Environmental Awareness category at the 2025 Future World Film Festival, held at the historic Cinema São Jorge in Lisbon, Portugal, on June 17.
“We were honored to be nominated,” Scott said. “While we didn’t take home the prize, the nomination itself was deeply significant. It moved the film beyond the U.S. and into the international arena — bringing ‘Small is Beautiful’ to new audiences and sparking meaningful global attention. The recognition helped generate press coverage we deeply value and affirmed that the film’s message resonates far beyond our borders.”
Cinema São Jorge is a magnificent 1950s-era Art Deco theater, long considered a cultural landmark.
“To premiere our (final version of the) film there, in a hall that has hosted global visionaries and cinematic icons, was truly wonderful,” Scott said. “Sadly, we couldn’t attend, but we were deeply honored to have our film included.”
“Small is Beautiful” also has been nominated for Best Short Documentary at the 2025 Septimius Awards, to be held at Koninklijk Theatre Tuschinski in Amsterdam on Sept. 3 and 4, 2025.
“The Septimius nomination places our film alongside international works that confront urgent global issues with courage,” Scott said.
The film also was selected for the 2024 Global Peace Film Festival in Orlando and Winter Park, Florida; 2025 Sacramento Underground Film & Arts Festival; and 2025 Colorado Environmental Film Festival in Golden.
“We’ve received standing ovations and deeply emotional responses from viewers — from retired firefighters to high school students,” Scott said. “Critics have called it a ‘wake-up call,’ ‘visually poetic’ and ‘an urgent warning wrapped in local beauty.’”
Sharpening the impact
Scott said that the showing at the 2025 Future Award Film Festival in Lisbon was the international premiere of the newly edited and final version of the film. Denny Thomas — who has received Emmy, Peabody and American Cinema Editors “Eddie” awards for his works — was hired to sharpen the film’s impact.
“My primary goal in re-editing ‘Small is Beautiful’ was to bring into clearer focus the machinery driving the SDC development,” Scott said. “We wanted to bring to light the powerful financial machinery and political forces during the California mandates, which were designed to override environmental laws, local democracy and community voices.”
She said that Thomas brought a “laser focus” to that storyline.
“He understood how to cut through the noise and elevate the stakes with precision,” she said. “He helped amplify the urgency of the moment, using both editorial rhythm and emotionally charged imagery to underscore what’s truly at risk — not just land, but the democratic process itself.”
The film features several Sonoma Valley residents, including Tom Deely, retired chief of the Eldridge Volunteer Fire Department; Matt Lage, retired chief of the Vacaville Fire Department; Wayne Stewart, retired lieutenant of the San Francisco Fire Department; and Bean Anderson, a retired engineer and member of the Glen Ellen Historical Society board of directors.
Also included are Healdsburg resident Judith Olney, a specialist in Environmental Impact Reports; and Santa Rosa resident Dan Levitus, a longtime environmental educator and wildlife biologist.
Scott said the film is receiving many accolades for its artistic quality.
“The cinematography and drone footage — shot by Codington, an internationally recognized wildlife photographer — truly made the film what it is,” she said. “Jim has an extraordinary eye for capturing the sacredness of place. His aerial work doesn’t just showcase the natural beauty of Sonoma Valley: It reveals what’s at stake. Many viewers have told us they were moved to tears by the visual power alone.”
She also praised the contributions of composer Carly Miller.
“Her haunting, emotionally nuanced score elevates the entire film,” Scott said. “It guides the audience through moments of quiet dread, fierce resistance and enduring hope.”
But Scott said perhaps the most gratifying response to the film — which is named after the E.F. Schumacher book that advocates for small and appropriate technologies as well as policies and communities that are superior alternatives to the “bigger is better” ethos — is the public dialogue and civic engagement it is stimulating.
“In Sonoma Valley, this story is playing out in real time,” Scott said. “The former state-run Sonoma Developmental Center became the target of a massive development plan — not because the public supported it, but because of a legal mechanism called the Builder’s Remedy (a provision of California’s Housing Accountability Act).”
This state loophole allows developers to bypass local zoning and environmental reviews if a city falls behind on state-imposed housing quotas.
“Despite seven years of public testimony opposing the plan, it was the developer — not the community — whose vision was chosen,” Scott said.
In March 2023, the California Department of General Services chose Napa-based developer Keith Rogal and his partner, the Grupe Company, to lead a $100 million project to redevelop the site. They then found the loophole, which allowed the proposed housing on the property to increase from 620 to 930 units.
Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Bradford DeMeo, responding to a lawsuit filed by Sonoma Valley citizens’ groups about the development project, ruled in April 2024 that the county had violated the California Environmental Quality Act by failing to respond to community concerns in the draft Environmental Impact Report; clearly define the number of housing units allowed; adequately assess impacts on biological resources and wildlife evacuation; and address the cumulative impacts of a project planned (but since canceled) at neighboring Hanna Center.
Development plans
The developers, renamed Eldridge Renewal LLC, have submitted another plan— regarded as complete by Permit Sonoma — calling for 990 housing units, 200 of which would be deed-restricted to accommodate lower-income households.
The project also calls for a 150-room hotel and 130,000 square feet of commercial, office, research and micro-manufacturing space, along with a new fire station.
On May 6, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to spend more than $900,000 to upgrade the EIR, hoping that it will enable the development plan to move forward. Dyett and Bhatia, the Oakland-based urban planning firm that created the original Specific Plan and EIR, was selected for the job.
Sonoma Valley Next 100 Years Project, a community effort supported by the Glen Ellen Historical Society, created an alternative development proposal that is founded on seven key principals: Keep the land at Sonoma Developmental Center in public ownership in perpetuity; make sure the local community has a strong say in the future of the land; protect the open space and expand wildlife and riparian corridors; and choose a scale of development that is compatible with the rural character of Sonoma Valley.
Scott said that after screenings of “Small is Beautiful” in San Francisco and the North Bay, panel discussions have helped to illuminate not only this housing and land-use issue in Sonoma Valley, but also similar issues in other California communities.
“A key part of our work is explaining to audiences that there’s a fire hose of legislation coming out of Sacramento — over 400 bills that are being written by large-scale developers and packaged under the label of ‘affordable housing,’” she said. “But the truth is, what’s being built is not remotely affordable for the average Californian.
These bills override environmental protections, silence local communities and open up public lands like the Sonoma Developmental Center to sprawling, high-risk development.”
She said that the film is helping people “connect the dots” between state legislation, the erosion of democratic process, wildfire risk and ecological collapse.
“That’s why it’s now being used in city halls, neighborhood forums and advocacy campaigns across the state,” Scott said. “It’s not just a film: It’s a wake-up call.”
The film is offered a no cost to local residents who wish to host community screenings in churches, neighborhood groups, libraries and anywhere else people are willing to gather and have a meaningful conversation. Contact [email protected] for more information.
“Our goal is to make the film as accessible as possible to fuel informed dialogue and collective action,” Scott said. “I’m finding joy in watching our little film gain momentum — all from the quiet of my Sonoma home.”
Reach the reporter, Dan Johnson, at [email protected].
