GMU Visiting Filmmakers Series: Approaching the Elephant | Weds 1 April 4:30pm JCC
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM EDT
Johnson Center, Cinema
GMU Visiting Filmmakers Series Presents
Approaching the Elephant
Wednesday April 1st | 4:30pm Johnson Center Cinema
Free screening and discussion with director Amanda Rose Wilder
Amanda Rose Wilder's feature film debut dives head first into the inaugural year of the Teddy McArdle Free School in New Jersey, where all classes are voluntary and rules are determined by vote: adults and children have an equal say. Wilder is there from the beginning to end of the school year, documenting and observing founder Alex Khost and an indelible cast of outspoken young personalities as they form relationships, explore their surroundings and intensely debate rule violations, until it all comes to a head. Approaching the Elephant is a rare, inspired portrait of unfettered childhood.
Richard Brody writes in the New Yorker: "Amanda Rose Wilder’s nuanced and passionate documentary, about the first year of a 'free' elementary school in New Jersey, reveals the glories and the limitations of unstructured classrooms and observational filmmaking alike."
The New York Times writes, "Ms. Wilder, in her debut feature, riskily opts to leave much of the children’s educational activity fairly vague. Which gives it one more thing in common with school: You need to pay attention."
Screening and discussion are free and open to the public.
See interview with Amanda Rose Wilder here.
GMU Visiting Filmmakers Series: Approaching the Elephant and Amanda Rose Wilder is sponsored by Film & Media Studies and Film & Video Studies, Delta Kappa Alpha (DKA), English, University Life, and Women and Gender Studies.
For more information:
Cynthia Fuchs
Director, Film & Media Studies
cfuchs@gmu.edu | @gmufams
