cupola productions
cupola productions
cupola productions
For those fortunate enough to encounter them, the unique insights and research of Rudolf Steiner into subjects such as education, medicine and agriculture have long been a source of wonder and inspiration. Since his death in 1925, Steiner’s vision has grown in both relevance and urgency, yet there are many people still unaware of his life and work. The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner, from the British film-maker Jonathan Stedall, aims to take the story to a wider audience.
THE DOCUMENTARY
Filmed during 2011 – the 150th anniversary year of Rudolf Steiner’s birth – THE CHALLENGE OF RUDOLF STEINER, a two-part documentary by veteran film-maker Jonathan Stedall tells the story of Steiner’s remarkable life (1861-1925), as well as exploring the influence of his ideas and insights on a whole range of contemporary activities – education, agriculture, medicine, social and financial issues, and the arts.
PART ONE describes Steiner’s childhood as the son of a humble railway official, growing up in the Austrian countryside, and his student years in Vienna towards the end of the 19th century. Hugely influenced by Goethe’s scientific writings, he was gradually able to reconcile the powerful spiritual experiences he had had since childhood with his interest in science and philosophy. Nevertheless it was not until he was nearly forty that he found an audience interested and open to what he came to call his spiritual science.
During the last twenty-five years of his life he lectured extensively all over Europe to educators, farmers, doctors, artists – and above all to people searching for a way that no longer separated science from religion, faith from reason, spirit from matter.
PART TWO (1 hour 45 minutes) looks initially at the subject of reincarnation and karma, with film at a prison in South Wales, at Ruskin Mill in Gloucestershire – a college for disadvantaged youngsters – and at a course for Biographical Counsellors at Emerson College in Sussex.
In the USA there are scenes at Waldorf Schools in Hawthorn Valley and Washington DC, at a biodynamic winery in California, and at the Copake Camphill community. Also featured are examples of Waldorf educational ideas being introduced into mainstream schooling at a Charter School in California and at the Steiner Academy Hereford.
The film concludes with examples of Steiner’s influence on medicine – in Switzerland at the Hiscia Institute, and in England at Weleda in Derbyshire and at the Blackthorn Medical Centre in Kent – and culminates with a sequence at an international medical conference at the Goethenum in Dornach.
A truth which comes to us from outside always bears the stamp of uncertainty. We can believe only what appears to each one of us in our own hearts as truth.
Rudolf steiner (ga 4, chapter 1)
about cupola
Cupola Productions was initially created in 2010 to produce Jonathan Stedall’s film ‘The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner’. As well as making this documentary for worldwide distribution through Television, DVDs and the Internet, this non profit-making company hopes to make available, to those interested in Rudolf Steiner’s insights and indications, some of the unused material – in particular over thirty of the unedited interviews filmed during the making of the documentary – for educational and training purposes.
We are currently offering English speaking Waldorf schools across the world our DVD ‘Waldorf Education’ free of charge (excluding postage) for those who would like to find out more. This DVD is a compilation of sequences from the main film. Please contact Sue Smee by email: sue.smee@rmc.rmt.org
Interested?
Would you like to know more about Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf education, or any of the other topics in the film?
the director
The year 2011 was Jonathan Stedall’s fiftieth year as a documentary film-maker. He began his career as an ASM and then Stage Manager in Repertory Theatre, and then worked in the cutting-rooms at Pinewood as an assistant film editor. For two years he was a Floor Manager in ITV before becoming a studio and film director at TWW in Cardiff and Bristol in 1961. There he made his first films with the poet John Betjeman, and in 1963 joined the BBC as a producer at the advent of BBC2.
Jonathan worked on the staff of the BBC for twenty seven years and has made over 150 documentaries, working with many thoughtful and creative people including Laurens van der Post, Alan Bennett, Mark Tully, Malcolm Muggeridge, Fritz Schumacher, Cecil Collins, Bernard Lovell, Ben Okri and Theodore Roszak.
In 1969 he won a British Film Academy Award for his film ‘In Need of Special Care’ about a Camphill School in Scotland, and since then has made further films about Camphill’s work for children and adults with special needs.
Other notable productions include biographies of Tolstoy, Gandhi and Jung, and three films for the 1976 BBC series ‘The Long Search’ – in Romania, Taiwan and California.
His book ‘Where on Earth is Heaven?’ was published by Hawthorn Press in 2009 – see his website:
film overview
The Challenge of Rudolf Steiner, filmed during 2011 – the 150th anniversary year of Steiner’s birth – tells the story of his remarkable life, interwoven with contemporary examples of how his ideas and insights have influenced pioneering work all over the world in education, agriculture, medicine, finance and the arts.
Filmed on location in Austria, Switzerland, the USA, India and in the UK, the documentary explores how the work of this Austrian philosopher, educationalist and visionary has grown in both relevance and urgency since his death in 1925.
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