Approaching the Elephant

Film Screening:

Approaching the Elephant is a cinema-verite portrait of the inaugural year of the Teddy McArdle Free School where all classes are voluntary and rules are determined by vote – the film follows founder Alex Khost and an indelible group of outspoken young personalities as they form relationships, explore their surroundings and intensely debate rule violations, until it all comes to a head. A rare, inspired portrait of unfettered childhood.


Q & A

with filmmaker Amanda Rose Wilder (Director/Cinematographer/Producer), Alex Khost (Founder of Teddy McArdle Free School), Robert Greene (Editor/Producer) and Caitlin Mae Burke (Co-Producer)


About The Series – “What Would the Community Think?”

A film series exploring how people form communities; the shared vision through which it is built, and what is deemed a success or failure. The desires and purposes of individuals forming groups, or the rejection of one lifestyle/community for another. Filmmaking collectives documenting their own existence or that of others, and the community that is created just by watching a film together.

Films screenings to include works The Troublemakers (1966), People’s Firehouse #1 (1979), Asylum (1972), No One Will Play with Me (1976), Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (1968), Susan After the Sugar Harvest (1970) and Por Primera Vez/For the First Time (1967)

Organized by Jake Perlin, film programmer.