Capturing History: The Sonoma Developmental Center

Your donations will go towards the completion of a video trailer and full documentary film intended to chronicle the historical significance and environmental relevance of this remarkable place. Our hope is that, by increasing awareness, our film will help to promote the preservation of its architecture and grounds for the benefit of the general public, the community, the environment and its abundant wildlife, and for posterity.

The Sonoma Developmental Center is a unique, profoundly important and fascinating institution. Conceived in Eldridge (Glen Ellen) in the early 1890’s as the ‘California Home for the Care and Training of the Feeble Minded’, this 1,670 acre facility housed up to four thousand ‘clients’ with extreme mental and physical disabilities until its final decommissioning by the State of California at the end of 2018.

Over the course of its existence, the SDC provided shelter, sustenance, training and education to those who suffered from diverse physical and mental afflictions such as extreme epilepsy and various birth defects. This provided opportunities for innovative research considered advanced for that era. Many cutting-edge medical procedures and experimental concepts were developed and employed there. Although the motivations and intentions were generally benevolent, there were a number of experiments and procedures introduced that were not without a good deal of attendant controversy. These included the promotion of eugenics, involuntary medical testing, physical labor, psychological techniques, medication, and thousands of forced sterilizations, primarily in the first half of the 20th Century. We intend to explore these and numerous other practices, as well as the evolution and metamorphosis of institutional practitioners and state and federal policies into more humane and science-based protocols. Many former employees have expressed their deep compassion for, and closeness to, their wards and patients. This is part of the complex and intriguing story of this multi-faceted state-run facility.

This huge property was built out as a nearly autonomous enterprise, with an extensive farm which provided most of the sustenance, and its own power generation and water resources, as well as railway and road access to the outside world . The Center also provided a wide variety of opportunities to generations of inhabitants of the Sonoma Valley, becoming the area’s largest employer for many decades.

The land encompasses much of the eastern flank of Sonoma Mountain. These extraordinarily abundant and diverse resources were utilized by the indigenous people for thousands of years prior to the arrival of foreign influences. Lumbering, agriculture, winemaking and widespread development were then introduced to the region. Jack London owned an adjacent ranch, now a State Park, and wrote about the neighboring ‘school’ and its occupants.

Upon the Sonoma Developmental Center’s closing in 2018, a number of proposals for purchase and redevelopment were submitted to the state and local authorities, and are currently being considered. These include plans for very extensive high-density housing, hotels, retail shops, restaurants and large-scale exploitation of the resources and property.

There is also a very viable alternative proposal on the table designed by a highly experienced and serious group of professionals to preserve and maintain many of the historic structures, create a museum and cultural hub for the community, build low-density affordable housing and businesses with a far smaller footprint, and allow the vast majority of the acreage to continue to exist as accessible wilderness, sensitive ecological habitat and a vital wildlife corridor in perpetuity.

My intention is to make a documentary about the remarkable history of, and future prospects for, this amazing place. It will include archival footage, photos and materials, narration and interviews with historians and former employees, extensive filming of the existing buildings and property, as well as an objective explanation of the current proposals and potential impacts upon the community and the natural environment.

I have put together a team of highly competent filmmakers from the Bay Area, with whom I have worked in the past, and have also received state and local permission to film on the property. We have full insurance already in place. I have been working with the California State Archives, the UC Archives, The Marcy House and members of the Glen Ellen Historical Society, as well as the current administrators of the Sonoma Developmental Center. I have also brought aboard excellent historians, experts and consultants. We have already filmed a large portion of the SDC campus and several insightful interviews with former employees who worked in important positions at the institution over a number of decades.

Initially, my team will use the funding resources that I am attempting to raise on this GoFundMe site to continue to shoot and complete a trailer of several minutes duration as ‘proof of concept’ to attract interest in, and funding for, the larger documentary to follow. That film will be approximately 50 minutes in length, and will be broadly distributed and brought to festivals. We have already attracted considerable interest, and are confident that there are a number of avenues towards achieving that result.

This current round of funding will pay for our professional crew, the finest video equipment, insurance, transportation, lodging, direction, production, editing, music, lighting, sound and cinematography in order to create a finished short film covering the basic concepts, subjects and salient issues involved, and to serve as a demonstration of the quality and commercial viability of the larger project to come.

We expect that we can complete this first brief trailer within a month of the successful conclusion of this initial fundraising effort. The ensuing full-scale production should be completed within six-to-eight months of a successful second round of financing.

I feel that it is incumbent upon me as a writer, filmmaker and journalist, as well as a local resident of Eldridge, to objectively chronicle the history, the present and the potential future of the Sonoma Developmental Center as accurately and expeditiously as possible. This is meant to be an educational, collaborative enterprise focused on this famous, fascinating and historically relevant place which is of such extreme importance and value to our community and quality of life. This will be the first comprehensive documentary of its kind. All contributors and participants will be credited in the film, unless I am specifically instructed not to do so.

I thank you all in advance for your interest, generosity and involvement.

Lucas Lackner