Controversial winner of the Cannes 2003 Palme d’Or and Best Director award, the defiantly indie ELEPHANT chronicles an ordinary day in a suburban American high school. But it’s not. Involving local teens as actors and story collaborators, Van Sant captures the rhythms of the school. Not your typical high school movie (or GOOD WILL HUNTING), ELEPHANT observes from a distance, with the frame audaciously aping 16mm documentary and TV, a fractured narrative and Godard-styled editing. Inspired by Alan Clarke’s TV drama of the same name, ELEPHANT has split the critics in its representation of student lives and school violence.
Also Screened as part of the Gus Van Sant Season