![Summer in the Forest (2017)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTYxODEyNzUtYjdhOS00MTA5LTgxMzYtYjkwZTE3NTBlYzg2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTM3MDMyMDQ@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR8,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Summer in the Forest (2017)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTYxODEyNzUtYjdhOS00MTA5LTgxMzYtYjkwZTE3NTBlYzg2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTM3MDMyMDQ@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR8,0,140,207_.jpg)
Leisurely and pleasant, “Summer in the Forest” isn’t the usual documentary involving mental illness: It’s neither case-pleadingly issue-oriented nor a portrait of individual struggle and inspiration. Instead, Randall Wright’s feature simply observes the day-to-day lives of several long-term residents at L’Arche, a communal facility in France. Admittedly, the state-run L’Arche is unusual — the closest one might possibly get to this kind of institution in the U.S. would doubtless be an expensive private one. Still, Wright’s film provides considerable insight into how various special-needs conditions might be better handled by society than they are presently. The documentary plays an assortment of week-long and shorter runs around the U.S.
Less than a single lifetime — barely a blip on the historical radar — has passed since the mentally or even physically disabled were commonly shut away in often inhumane asylums designed less for their benefit than...
Less than a single lifetime — barely a blip on the historical radar — has passed since the mentally or even physically disabled were commonly shut away in often inhumane asylums designed less for their benefit than...
- 4/5/2018
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
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