Twenty years ago the Swedenborg Foundation released Shining Soul: Helen Keller’s Spiritual Life and Legacy, a documentary exploring the spiritual influences that shaped Keller’s life.
In the quote below from the 2004 Swedenborg Foundation Annual Report, the project was announced to members:
Penny Price, the filmmaker who produced Splendors [of the Spirit], has completed a draft treatment for a video on Helen Keller. Estelle Giamboi, who has manned the front-line position of customer service since the Foundation moved to West Chester [in 1993-1994], reports that the broadcasts of Splendors have done more to expand awareness of Swedenborg than any other initiative undertaken by the Foundation, with the possible exception of the New Century Edition.
The 2005 Annual Report announced that the film had been completed, saying, “The crowning achievement of the year was the release in November of our new film, Shining Soul: Helen Keller’s Spiritual Life and Legacy, commemorating the 125th anniversary of Keller’s birth. The triumphant premiere was held at the Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, at a dinner honoring the major contributors to this wonderful project (see page 11). We are deeply grateful for their support.”
The supporters named (on page 11 of the original report) were:
- Glencairn Foundation
- Asplundh Foundation
- Trustees of Lydia S. Rotch Fund
- Wayfarers Chapel
- Mr. and Mrs. Leon S. Rhodes
- Mr. and Mrs. Edward G. Allison
- Mr. Kim Junge
The 2006 Annual Report recaps the accolades received for the film.
Text version of the excerpt below (included for accessibility; the original appears as an image above):
“In 2006 Shining Soul: Helen Keller’s Spiritual Life and Legacy won four film festival awards: Best Director in Short Film Genre: Documentary, at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival; The Remi Award–Gold, at Houston WorldFest; Telly Award–Second Place; US/International Film and Video Festival–Bronze. Video Librarian magazine awarded it ★★★ (out of four possible) and “Recommended” designation. The documentary aired seventy-four times on PBS stations around the country. We distributed 1,963 units of Shining Soul in 2006, including those sold by our distributor, Victory Multimedia. Our other videos–in DVD and VHS formats–sold 905 units. We have been able to determine that, at a minimum, we sold 166 units of books and videos to people who identified themselves as having been to a screening or as having seen a TV broadcast of Shining Soul. This in no way captures the full extent of sales that may have resulted from TV airings, because people may buy our books from bookstores after seeing the film and many people who purchase from our web site do not exercise the option of filling in where they heard about us. We continue to receive laudatory emails and other feedback relating how people were moved by watching Shining Soul.”
As use of DVD players has dwindled, so too have sales of this documentary film. So in 2025 we officially changed the status of this publication to “Out of Print.” Then, we set it up to premiere free on YouTube on December 25th.
We were very happy to see that the documentary received nearly 10,000 views in its first week, and to date has exceeded 12,000 views.
We still have a small number of physical DVDs available on-site for anyone interested. (You can make an appointment to come by and purchase it using the form on this page.)
Finally, you can view this in-process new page on our website where we have compiled Helen Keller publications and information.
