Small is Beautiful — The Quest to Save the Valley of the Moon is about efforts to preserve the Sonoma Developmental Center in Glen Ellen. (The Bay Area premier will be on Sunday, July 14 at the
Sebastiani Theatre in Sonoma.)
Movies at Oakmont will show the film, Sunday, July 28 at 1:30 p.m., a half-hour before our regular feature at the Berger Center. There will be a short Q&A with production company Turtle Island Films after the 25-minute film.
“Small is Beautiful” encapsulates the narrative of California’s urbanization. A community wages a fierce battle against a massive urban development threatening to engulf a rural community. Positioned in a crucial wildlife corridor and high fire danger zone, the proposed project not only threatens biodiversity but also risks a surge in rural road traffic by 40% to 70%, putting lives at risk during evacuation during wildfires. This documentary exposes the collusion between state mandates and profit-driven developers. As California faces stringent housing quotas, communities grapple with the repercussions of urbanization, raising critical questions about who truly benefits from these policies.